David Cameron (yes, I am going to quote a politician) recently said that too many twits...make a twat. Whilst he should have perhaps been referring to some members of our current government, he was actually talking about the latest fad in the already over-saturated market of social networking - Twitter. If people stopped to think about what he actually said and got over the fact that he said 'twat' on national breakfast radio then perhaps we'd all realise he has a rather good point.
What is the point of Twitter? Not being able to make sense of all the fuss as an outsider, I joined at the tail end of last week after reading a Giles Coren column in which he declared he had signed up. If Coren can get past the communicative debase-ness of it all then so can I - or so I thought. The difference between Giles Coren and I is that he has thousands of people actually vaguely interested in what he has to say each week. I, unfortunately, do not.
If you're a celebrity or figure in the public eye, then Twitter is a great way to promote yourself. Twitter allows people to feel they are actually connecting with the person they look up to. Celebrities post candid photos of themselves and a description of what they're doing each evening and you can get to feel like you've gotten to know them and their lives that little bit better. Official websites previously bridged the gap between fan and management company; Twitter bridges the gap between fan and celebrity. Ashton Kutcher is the most followed person on Twitter, with over three and a half million people signed up to his updates. As great as the guy may be, these millions of people don't watch his page so they can discover the website link to see his new movie trailer. They do it because he talks to the 'ordinaries'. Plain ol' you and me get the chance, if we type 160 characters witty enough to catch his eye, to (albeit briefly) converse with him. Street minion doesn't get the chance to be noticed by Hollywood A-Lister every day, don'tcha know.
But unless you want to fruitlessly pursue Kutcher/P Diddy/Lady Gaga/someone-who-will-be-richer-than-you-ever-will in the vain hope of a moments communication, then Twitter is all a bit pointless. Essentially a website that is equivalent to writing new Facebook statuses every two hours, surely it would just be simpler to update the original? Every man and his dog is on Facebook and when it comes to their internet domination in comparison to Twitter's, the latter is simply a small drop in a vast cyberworld ocean.
I currently have 5 followers. Not because I have no friends but because nobody else I know is on there. They've already realised that when the tool to keep those who give a damn updated on your latest movements is already in existence, you don't need another. You wouldn't buy another, cheaper, oven for no good reason if you already had an expensive and perfectly good one in your kitchen and the same logic applies here.
Twitter will last all the while our society's ridiculous obsession with celebrity lasts - which, at the rate things are going, means it won't be disappearing off our computer screens anytime soon. People join Twitter in order to make themselves seem more interesting in others' eyes - which is not only rather tragic, but ironic if going on Twitter is the only thing you have to occupy your time in the first place. At the end of the day the only people who gain anything from this website are the developers and tween girls whose days are made when Disney-star-of-the-moment takes ten seconds from their busy day to reply to their comment. Too many tweets undeniably make you feel like a twat, particularly if there is nobody watching.
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