Tweet

With all the uproar about Twittering, many chirping fans are flocking to sing its praises. One of the oft-cited benefits is the "community" aspect. However, I think this is more a false sense of community.
First, it seems that many of the defenders of political twitter truly believe that they are representative of their nation. Surrounded by harmonious tweets, they fail to recognize that a majority of the United States does not Twitter.
Second, I really do think we are already in danger of losing actual community to a virtual community. You may update your status daily, but when was the last time you spoke to the couple who live next door?
I have nothing against Twitter (or any social networking site). It strikes me as potentially time-consuming, relatively harmless, ego-centric navel-gazing. Fine. I see it's benefits as an organization tool. I see it's drawbacks as a massive SPAM distribution site. I just hope that all the tweeting doesn't drown out the real conversations. The ones you have over the fence or at the grocery store. And that the egotism doesn't strip down our ability to understand that there's a big world out there. Bigger than Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace combined.