Being new to Twitter, I have obviously been skeptical about it up to this point. I still question it’s worth sometimes, but I understand the use for it. I understand why it’s so widely popular and why some of my friends are so absorbed in it. I personally love that you can follow stars who you will most definitely never meet or talk to in your life and view their own casual messages as they update them. These stars are people who share their material with us but it is all carefully thought out and edited in their music, stand-ups, movies, and other performances. But through Twitter we can witness these people’s raw words and feelings; it feels more personal, like there isn’t much difference between us and them. It feels like we are overhearing them in a conversation taking place in the same room as we are in.
I enjoyed reading “I Tweet, Therefore I Am” by Peggy Orensein. I thought it was funny how she explained that on a perfect afternoon spent with her daughter, she had to find the right words to ‘tweet’ about her feelings towards this afternoon. That’s what the world is turning into. We experience something and we immediately try to figure out a way to share this through Facebook or Twitter. This has its good and bad characteristics. The good characteristic is that we are more prone to stop and think about something we are experiencing or feeling and we carefully choose the right words to describe what we think about something. It’s like a diary. Some say that writing down your feelings helps deal with what you are feeling and you can more effectively reflect upon your life. It forces you to ask yourself “how do I feel about this?” sometimes we don’t stop and ask ourselves things like this. The negative aspect of this is easily understood by a quotation in the reading said by an interviewee: “On Twitter or Facebook you’re trying to express something real about who you are,” she explained. “But because you’re also creating something for others’ consumption, you find yourself imagining and playing to your audience more and more. So those moments in which you’re supposed to be showing your true self become a performance. This excerpt strongly speaks to me as I find it very accurate. To complement this statement the author goes on to say: “But when every thought is externalized, what becomes of insight? When we reflexively post each feeling, what becomes of reflection?” These thoughts are very important, I believe. I know for a fact that there are plenty of things that I may have not even feel like saying out loud or straight to my friends but I’ll post it online because it’s just easier and more convenient. Some say that the loudest person in the room is the weakest. For a generation who shares and externalizes every thought and feeling, should we be worrying about what effect constant externalization of emotion may have on us? Mankind may be newer to so many emotions flying around constantly than you think.

- Zach Wied