The Twitter Addict Who Dreams in 140 Characters

betabeat.com

17 points·padrack··7 comments

"Living among media-obsessed New Yorkers, including some who employ two computers, one for work and one for TweetDeck..."

Um.. second display? Second desktop? Spaces?

This is sad. There is more to life than 140 character bursts, even if your job revolves around the platform. The idea of wasting 18-20 hours a day (as in the article) revolts me. I'd rather read a novel (or try to write one!). Or learn a programming language. Or go hiking. Or SOMETHING.

To be fair, Andy Carvin (@acarvin) was spending 20 hours a day on Twitter only when he was covering a revolution.

True, but that leaves 4 hours a day to sleep, let alone have a worthwhile life. But who am I to judge, I suppose.

My first reaction was also: This is sad. But then again. If you're doing something you love, you're (probably) doing the right thing. It might be an addiction but it's not necessarily ruining their health and lives like crack. But I admit, it IS rather difficult to understand the obsession.

I think the best way I can describe my reaction is by describing the effect reading novels (not blog posts or stuff on the internet, but actual literature) affects my inner mental dialogue. It affects the way I communicate information with myself. That's huge, in my mind. I speak more concisely, using a more elaborate diction than I otherwise would.

I don't want to imagine what my monologue would sound like after twitter. That's why I feel its sad.

According to Cosette Rae, the executive director of reSTART, the first clinic in the United States dedicated to treating internet addiction, cases related to Twitter are on the rise.

I just tweeted a 140 character version of that. Irony? :)

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