From Pine View Farm

Twits on Twitter 2

Phillygrrl was teasing me most politely the other night about my refusal to twit. Frankly, a lot of it is a tendency I have to resist hype. I have never been, am not, and probably shall never be an “early adopter.”

Will Bunch takes on the hype about Twitter and Iran:

So why all the focus here in America on the social networking story? Well, it is “news,” literally, since Twitter is only a couple of years old. What journalists don’t want to acknowledge openly is that they’re reporting so much about Twitter because it’s easy — anyone can log in from anywhere and read what people are saying. But reporting on the ground from Tehran — spending all that money and somehow getting past the government censors — that’s hard work. On top of all that, Twitter is a way for a lot of Americans to feel they are somehow “taking part” in what seems like, for now, a cathartic global event — even if the truth is that at the end of the day it will be Iranians, and not us, who decide whether this rebellion actually succeeds.

The larger reality is that Twitter is a medium, but it’s not the message. If change really does come to Iran, it will not be cause of 140 characters but because of the character of millions, who are literally risking death to march for the things they believe in. It was like that in Massachusetts in 1775, when the news traveled at the speed of horse, and it is like that in Tehran in 2009. Same as it ever was.

June 20, 2009 | Posted by: Frank | Posted in: Geek Stuff | Bookmark this post

2 comments

phillygrrl
July 1, 2009 at 2:41 pm

I just saw this and I would post a rebuttal on my blog, but I’m too busy Tweeting!
Frank
July 1, 2009 at 7:12 pm

[chuckle]