from Thomas Donlan at Barron’s, Ignorance is Not Bliss

“Tech writer Bruce Sterling commented in 2007 that using Twitter for ‘literate communication’ is ‘about as likely as firing up a CB radio and hearing some guy recite The Iliad.’ The journalist Clive Thompson mused in a New York Times Magazine editorial that the service had expanded narcissism into ‘a new, supermetabolic extreme—the ultimate expression of a generation of celebrity-addled youths who believe their every utterance is fascinating and ought to be shared with the world.’…Jonathan Zittrain, professor of internet law at Harvard Law School, said, ‘The qualities that make Twitter seem inane and half-baked are what makes it so powerful.’ ”

print