by Peter Ames Carlin, The Oregonian Saturday May 02, 2009, 6:26 AM
I'm sitting in my office listening to R.E.M. and pondering a piece on Twitter. My left leg is crossed over the right at the ankle. Do you care?
That last paragraph contains about 140 characters, which is the most Twitter, the social network system, allows in an entry.
Founded in 2006, Twitter is a free service with about 6 million users. Its monthly growth rate, according to Nielsen, is 1,382 percent.
Or, as we say across all media platforms: Wow.
Did you get that this story will be written in 140-character-or-fewer-chunks? Just like a Tweet, which is what Twitter entries are called.
Many celebrities, politicians and some journalists use Twitter to talk directly, in real time, to their fans/constituents/readers/viewers.
You can Tweet from your computer or your cell phone; some Twitterers go on all day about what they're doing, feeling, musing and eating.
This might be very cool; "the message system we didn't know we need until we had it," according to Twitter co-founder Biz Stone.
Or as Stephen Colbert said to Stone, just stupid; "... like the answer to a problem we didn't know we had until I invented the answer."
No matter, Twitter has supplanted Facebook as the online social networking phenomenon of the moment; the must-have application.
But is perpetual immediacy, and a constant stream of short info-bursts, the best way to describe or experience the world around you?
Or is Twitter the latest and, to put it ironically, greatest step in the stripping of meaning from news, information and social discourse?
K103's John Erickson Twitters to "commiserate" with other pre-dawn DJs, and chat with listeners. "It makes me feel like I have company."
Portland public relations exec Christina Dyrness Williams said Twitter keeps her current on a variety of social and professional levels.
"It's my news wire, my water cooler," said Williams, who works out of her home. "I'd say it's my social life, but that sounds too sad."
Not to Stone and his Twitter co-founders, though. They're already fielding offers from massive companies eager to buy their business.
Which is particularly compelling when you consider that Twitter, for all its millions of users, has no ads and produces no money. Yet.
It is arguably the corporate version of a Tweet: New, flashy, full of potential. And valued more for what it might be than for what it is.
"There's a difference between profit and value," Stone says. "Value to us is a strong, robust, worldwide network that (becomes) part of ..."
"... everyday life for people, organizations and companies." At which point "you have just so many opportunities for generating revenue."
Intriguingly, it takes far more than 140 characters for Stone to explain how Twitter might, someday, make money.
Whatever. For the rest of us it's more interesting to consider Twitter's cultural implications. In other words: To Tweet or not to Tweet?
Instant, widespread communication can be transformative in global hot spots, rallying citizens even in the most repressive societies.
When student photographer James Buck got arrested at a protest in Egypt, his one-word Tweet ("arrested") beamed instantly to friends.
Word moved quickly to the U.S. embassy in Egypt, which intervened with local authorities on Buck's behalf. His next Tweet: "Freed."
Politicians Tweet, too. Barack Obama (or someone on his staff) posted throughout his presidential campaign. That ended when he took office.
Some members of Congress Tweet to keep in touch with their constituents. None of Oregon's reps seem all that into it, though.
Earl Blumenauer posted a lot of bracing insider stuff from the Capitol this winter, but lately took a month-long break from Tweeting, until this week.
The most famous Tweeter these days is TV star-slash-reality-show-producer Ashton Kutcher, who has nearly 1.5 million followers.
Kutcher fought with CNN to top 1 million followers, and won. "We can and will create our media," he said. "We can and will edit our media."
He went on: "We can and will create our media; we can and will edit our media; we can and will censor our own media, ourselves."
Kutcher media ranges from his tasks ("tactical weapons training today,") to beliefs. ("Everyone needs to chill out on the swine flu thing.")
Don't even ask about the Tweets of Kutcher wife Demi Moore, an actress who has also become a fervent Twitterer.
Here Moore is responding to a Tweet posted by singer Fred Durst: "I am loving your love to your lady! It is been felt and shared."
Which is nice, if not quite grammatical. And if Moore's feelings about Durst's feelings for his lady intrigue you, she Tweets regularly.
Still, some Twitterers are smart, funny and readable. Some are people you've heard of (Matthew Perry, for instance). Others are unknown.
Check out http://favrd.textism.com/most to see the day's funniest Tweets. I have no idea who compiles the list, or how, but it's cool.
Sample: "Some people say you have to drink eight glasses of water a day to stay healthy, but I think they're diluting themselves."
That's by a guy named Dan Wineman, from North Carolina.
Twitter may not be the future. It may not even have a future. But it's something. And for now, it's free. Tweet away.
-- Peter Ames Carlin; petercarlin@news.oregonian.com
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