Twitter...A Step Too Far

Last week I signed up to Twitter. I twitter-twattered with Demi, Ashton, P Diddy (yes, really) and got various random updates from fellow Twits about their hourly goings ons. After day two of twittering about, it suddenly dawned on me that my attempt to fully embrace modern technology was perhaps leading me down a rather unhealthy path. Never one to do things by halves, I had fallen into that deadly trap of feeling that I had to keep up with every other Tom, Dick and Twit by signing up to another 'social network' in the effort to stay 'on trend' and 'with it'...but it didn't make me feel like, well, me.

Now I'm all for embracing change, especially change of the technologically advancing sort (see previous entry about cafe blogging - still very proud of that one). When my mum bought me an Atari for my 9th bday, I thought I'd died and gone to PacMan Heaven. When I got my first Sony Walkman in the 80's (the size of a house brick), I strutted my stuff and didn't stop till I did get enough (too much pain in the back and neck, actually). And when I got my own email account at work, I thought I'd broken the very last telecommunications barrier and that the whole world would finally hear my voice. They very nearly did - unfortunately, when I emailed my mum telling her I'd be home for tea, inadvertently cc'ing the entire BBC marketing department, I did lose some of that hard earned street cred.

These days, I find myself checking into Facebook EVERY day. The whole world and his wife is on there. I get invites to parties via Facebook (what ever happened to paper invitations?). I check the wellbeing of my little brother on Facebook (he is allergic to phoning home apparently). I arrange to meet friends on Facebook. I even found out about the sad demise of Michael Jackson on Facebook. So that is what I have become. A profile picture. With no voice. Just a status update.

I miss SPEAKING to my friends. Don't get me wrong - I love the spontaneous, instantaneous interaction you get with Facebook and it's certainly good for updating my far flung loved ones with photos and video clips of M's latest ballet show, etc. Plus, proper, grown up phone conversations don't necessarily mix well with a demanding 3 year old who always manages to sabotage my phone time by shouting something awfully embarrassing like 'MUMMY I DID A POO IN THE KITCHEN!'... But I guess it's the way we are heading. Less human contact and more clacking of the keyboard.

Unfortunately though, with Twitter, it was just one step too far. Aside from the fact that no one in their right mind would have been THAT interested in my hourly updates, it just seemed like a waste of time. And time is precious.

"Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you." - Carl Sandburg