Crazy Kids…
Source: Neighbors Of Harrisburg Teen Charged With Supporting ISIS Express Disbelief « CBS Philly
Why is Twitter even something that people do? Why do people Tweet? How did the world get along without this stupid app? I’m not even sure of how to use the word. I guess it’s a verb, as in I twit you, or I twitter you. If in a bar, do you tell someone to twitter you? Would they twitter you later, after dinner perhaps? Is it a noun, as in he’s a twitter, or they’re all twitters? If it’s singular, does that make someone a twit?
This useless app was invented on the heels of the success of all social media phenomenon beginning of course with Facebook. In the case of Facebook, the app at least makes some sense as social voyeurs and exhibitionists alike could satisfy their particular needs. In the case of Twitter, it appears that the utterances of a few celebrities or personalities are so compelling that subscribing to their timely bon mots is a must do. It’s a bit of an evolution from the days of gathering around Moses while he reads pronouncements from a stone tablet. But you’d think that based on the popularity of the app, that the pronouncements made by present day social deities are no less sage.
Why can’t people wait until the 6 pm news to know what Kim thinks? Why do we need to instantly know that she just bought a tennis bracelet for her cat? Why would any sane person need to be piped in to Al Gore’s recent verbal discharge? According to Google, the accounts with the largest followings include Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and Barack Obama. Wait…Barack Obama?
Unless you’re a spy, the compunction to be a twitter user implies that someone else’s life is more interesting than your own. It actually accentuates the very human tendency to listen to those views that are already agreeable to their own. The more people that are in that echo chamber, the more it reinforces and validates their own worldview. As the top twitter personalities above indicate, this is the realm of 12 year old girls. This is the constituency of those that wait breathlessly for every word from their idols.
It’s actually brilliant marketing, since they don’t stop making 12 year old girls which come with their natural need to be part of a popular mob. It’s curious that some people never outgrow that though. That’s why they’re called followers.