Are we becoming a nation of twits?

Are we on our way to becoming a nation of twits? I would submit that there is growing evidence of a dumbing down of society in general to the A.D.D. level of Twitter. Not much holds readers’ attention beyond a sentence or two. We are used to sound bites on the evening news and short snippets of news delivered in staccato fashion by various news headline sources. On-line so-called social networks all seem to be focused upon short interchanges between members and our phones have become vehicles for short texting exchanges in a bazaar shorthand that further shortens the time required to communicate.

Still, there are hold outs, islands of more leisurely and complete communications between people. Starbucks comes to mind. I have written here before that Starbucks shops seem to be the snail equivalent to all of this electronic haste (like the postal service which offers snail mail; Starbucks offers a place to sit and talk directly to others, sort of snail texting or snail email).

When Twitter first came out I signed up and tweeted away, normally several times a day. After a few months I noted that most of my tweets were really pointers to longer dissertations somewhere else – a blog post or a pointer to a full article on some Web site. The content limitations of a tweet were just too great for my style. I’m still on Twitter, but now all of my tweets are really just notifications of blog post here and elsewhere. The same is basically true on my Facebook page.

The sad proof of what is happening to us as a society can be seen in the failures of many large and once proud newspapers and the troubles being suffered by the major bookstore chains. Too few have the inclination (they would say the time) to sit and read, much less to actually formulate and write a few complete sentences to express a thought or opinion. Rather they spend time ROFLing or LOLing or whatever some of those other texting shorthand things are supposed to mean.

Don’t get me wrong. I love what you can do and find on the Internet. After all the Internet is the vehicle responsible for the invention of blogging. Before that one could keep a journal or maybe write a letter to someone (or to an editor) or self-publish a book; however, there was no good way to engage in a communication of self expression that was not directed to a specific other person or group. However, the Internet has also spawned Twitter and IM ( which led to texting) and other forms of communicating that have dumbed-down the process.

I find it ironic that much of this technology is grouped under the heading of “Social Networking.” I t seems to me that almost nothing could be less social than sitting by yourself in front of a computer screen, typing away about yourself. Why not go out and actually talk to someone face-to-face. Maybe instead of Facebook we could call that FaceMe. Just a thought.