In plain view, hidden

[koganbot]

Glenn Greenwald in today's Salon:

John Cole confesses to what he acknowledges is a "Get off my lawn" sentiment in questioning the purpose, value and appeal of Twitter. At the risk of appearing as crotchety as he does, I share that bewilderment. About Twitter messages, John says "they all read like cell phone text messages between 12 year olds," and indeed, the only purpose I can discern is that it provides a format for expressing thoughts that are too inconsequential to merit a stand-alone article or post. For precisely that reason, it is unsurprising that Twitter has become a huge hit among our media stars, for whom triviality is a guiding principle.

Well, that final sentence is gratuitous snark. In any event, I can't speak for Twitter, since I'm not signed up, but Greenwald gives a potential answer to his own question: "it provides a format for expressing thoughts that are too inconsequential to merit a stand-alone article or post." So, being apparently inconsequential, the heat is off. They don't count. So they don't need scrutiny, and therefore they escape censorship by the serious mind (which is not engaged). Hence Twitter can be an area for free play, a field for the forbidden - not a field for the Seriously Recognized Transgression, but for that which is suppressed in virtue of its being beneath notice. Hence Twitter can be a public Unconscious, one that's in plain sight, like pop music before the Beatles. (Not to say that Twitter is like this - as I say, I don't know - but that it has the capacity. But I still don't think I have time for another distraction.)

h/t Tal Rosenberg

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I think you're right about the ostensible inanity of Twitter providing cover for something more interesting - but then I think how people say things can be more interesting than what they say. And whether it's inane or not, a person's decision to put certain kinds of inanity on Twitter and not others can be mildly diverting. In any case, despite them all posting basically inconsequential stuff, I'm getting a v distinct sense of personality from the celebrities I'm following. Cassie is sweet, naive and enthusiastic. Solange is bratty and entitled. Erykah Badu is somehow simultaneously earth mother and stoned space goddess. Justin Timberlake is confused and good-humoured. Mariah loves her dog, her backing vox and her fans. Jim Jones is ghetto and self-aware. Etc.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Actually, Erykah's tweets over the weekend about her stalker getting arrested outside her house were pretty riveting.

[koganbot]

I wonder how many fictional Twitters there are (like this one from a trade representative for the AMSC, "a trade organization for the promotion of industrial milk solids").