Serious question: why, if we deplore the "sound bite media," do we embrace Twitter?

[Robb]

Thought this as I fell asleep last night. :)

Any idea? And for disclosure, I think it's all part of the dumbing-down process, a handless conspiracy no one even has to oversee.

[snooper2]

1. what's twitter

:rofl:

[dugaresa]

2. a lot of people have the attention span of hamsters

twitter seems to be a hamster toy to me

[BlueIdaho]

6. Tell that to the Dissenters in Iran

The "state" managed to shut down all other forms of communication - but the twitter stream brought the world news of the protests and Iranian Guard's jack boot thugs.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Who? I don't use Twitter.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. More twits than thinkers?

That's what I'm thinking.

The sound bite was/is but one paver in the road to a nation of mush brains, so is Twitter but the latest one.

[ixion]

5. don't use twitter

not really a fan of social networking sites, in general.

[tridim]

7. IMO Twitter sucks, but facebook is pretty fun..

Just because I enjoy finding and chatting with old friends.

Twitter is really lame, just a rehash of old (and better) technology that has been around for decades. I don't get it at all.

[dugaresa]

11. i have had a number of friends inquire as to why I don't have a facebook

account in order to keep in touch.

the problem is that the preferred method of keeping in touch for me is a letter or email or a phone call.
and my favorite way to catch up is a dinner at my home or theirs where we get together for hours and laugh.

I guess I am old fashioned and perhaps one day I will get up to speed but I truly do enjoy being around people and sharing and talking until the wee hours of the night.

[vi5]

8. Not everyone embraces Twitter...

I don't.....most people I know don't. The only people I know who do are either hardcore techie types who like the technology aspect of it, or those that actually like the sound byte media culture.

[rrneck]

9. Because we love mirrors.

Even if they are tiny and distorted.

[City Lights]

10. I'm not part of your "we."

Never used twitter, and don't intend to start.

However, I do agree with you that it's part of the dumbing-down process.

[Warpy]

12. Twitter is a grass roots rumor mill

Individual posts are pretty worthless, but a chorus of posts can tell you something is going on.

For instance, the Iran boards today are very active.

Sound bite journalism is top down propaganda, highly organized and rarely informative.

[sharesunited]

13. Twitter isn't dumbing down. It takes sharp, concise writing to make your point in 140 characters.

[leftstreet]

14. The media is Them - twitter is Us n/t

[BlueIdaho]

15. MSM is top down, Twitter is bottom up... nt

[Spike89]

16. Appropriate venues

Expect in-depth analysis, read a book, magazine, or even a newspaper. Want a quick recap of news with video, watch the evening news, check CNN headline news, or the the Internet. Want to know what your peers or "enemies" think about the news, watch virtually any cable "news" show. If you need to get a quick message out to friends, colleagues, or the whole world, Twitter and other social media sites can do that.

The dumbing part comes from expecting milk from a fish. In other words, people are way too uncritical about the medium and unrealistic about the role each part can play. Anyone expecting to be well-informed from just following one of those sources has been dumbed down.