Over the time of Twitter’s lifespan, I have wondered what it’s purpose is the the common man. I understood how it was being used (people make posts about moments in their day that they feel are “post worthy”) but not the value of doing the action. You see, Twitter is used and designed to be a “real time” tool; something happens, you evaluate, post, and go on. The problem I have is that moment of disengagement. It is one thing to take a step back and say, “This is nice,” and another to remove yourself from participating so you can tell people who you many never have met that the moment actually happened. Heaven forbid they devalue it and make it into something you regret being involved in. Maybe this is my actual frustration, Twitter is used to reinforce the social norm to a new extreme and I am for challenging it.

Steven Johnson’s article did show me other uses of Twitter that were unfamiliar to me. Such as the “hyper-sharing” of hyperlinks. What does this mean… fads live less than ten minutes if you are on Twitter. Another thing is what people are doing with Twitter as third party programmers (the only value i truly wee with Twitter). Connecting people via their locations, topics of Tweets, and photos. Protests and revolts are being organized on a forum that the government cannot keep up with. Sadly these are never in the United States.

I cannot tell you how mad I was when I read that Peggy Orenstein would want to separate herself from a  moment with her daughter in order to tweet about it instead of simply enjoying it. To the reader of the tweet it was simply an “aw” moment. the the daughter who lost her mother to the world for an instant, it was the end of a connection that cannot be remade. There is a cost to tweeting; the time you loose to do it.  Remember that.