I've got to admit, I am not riding the Twitter bandwagon, the first time I went on the website was just five minutes ago. Yet even though I don’t use the website, it still follows me around on a daily basis. When Twitter became a viable news source is completely beyond me, but if I want to watch my favorite show (SportsCenter on ESPN) or just television news, Twitter is always there.
On more than one occasion I have been sitting watching my beloved SportsCenter and seen “LeBron James Tweet” in the queue of stories still to come. Personally, I am not a LeBron James fan so I couldn’t care less about what he has to say, but even without my bias towards the player, why should anyone watching SportsCenter care what he has to say. What can be said in a cap of 145 words that can actually make a difference?
Not only that, but more often than not, LeBron (and other athletes and celebrities with millions of people “Following” them) will say scathing things that attack other players, teams or coaches. A paragraph of text can cause a scandal that will last weeks in the media and it was all put out there by a single click of a button. Tweet, tweet, tweet you just lost thousands of fans.
Twitter is a slightly creepy new form of social networking that allows people to know exactly what others are doing right now. In a limited amount of text, celebrities and commoners alike tell of their whereabouts or opinions on anything and everything. Apparently, American media is content with a single block of text and believes that it is news worthy, but I don’t.
What do you think about Twitter?
Twitter is really weird. I have it, and my RA laughed at me because I posted a total of 4 tweets in 2010, and I haven't been on it since. This whole Charlie Sheen business is just...I don't even know. I don't understand why everyone needs to know about it. It's gossip, not really news, but hey, whatever works! I'm interested in Colbert talking about fake Twitters and how they work in society. You're right, most of it isn't news.
ReplyDeleteWe were talking about this the other day, and I completely agree! LeBron is not my choice of news, so why do they make him sound like he knows what he's talking about all the time...it's just opinion!
ReplyDeleteI hate twitter!!!!!!! It is incredibly annoying, like ohh Im going to just go tweet that now? what no! When they get into celebrities twitter thats when it gets worse. Why should we care about how they messed up their life personally it is none of our business but thats just me. But your rights most of it really isn't news anymore, sadly.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I don't feel like I would want LeBron James as my source of news. Opinion isn't fact.
ReplyDeleteI really like this post. You're thinking critically here -- and I agree: twitter does not constitute real "news." Unfortunately, many people follow tweets more readily than anything of substance.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the news should be whittled down to 144 characters to hold our attention better? ;)