Paul Burri: Twitter Is for Twits

» SB Native on 02.08.10 @ 09:38 AM

Having been in the education system for a few years, this commentary brings to light the lack of interest our students have in the language arts. Is it the teacher’s fault that a great number of our students dont’t have a love of reading or writing?  Is it the educational systems fault or publishers of children’s books, that there are so few titles or content of interest for our students?
I still firmly believe our future community begins at home.  When I was young, my mother joined book clubs not only for her enjoyment, but for my, and my three other siblings educational support. I grew to love the wonderful stories I heard and would attempt to read later and eventually I would begin to write my own stories.
Though I had no need to write long letters, since everyone important to me lived in SB, the love of writing became part of my communication skills wholly due to my love of reading.
I have past this love on to my children.  I read to them when they were young.  When money was tight and I couldn’t afford new books, I would either recite a story I’d read from my childhood or make up stories for them to hear at bedtime.  They loved recogizing themselves in the stories I would make up the best.
To this day, all three of my children, now adults, have favorite authors and take the time to sit with a book and read.  Often they like to visit and tell me about the book they just read.
When my eldest son was in Iraq, his letters home were thoughtful and full of requests for sour cream and onion Pringles and music I had recorded and played when he was little (Madonna, Neil Diamond, etc.). My letters were filled with the mundane daily routine of our family and parental pride. We kept our coorespondances and tucked them away in our repective ‘stashes’ of familial memoribillia. These letters, like baby clothes, baptismal candles, and pictures, have become a part of our family history.
Let’s not put too much on the ailing school system, though it too has a tremendous obligation and responsibility to our children.  The system can only put out what we as parents have put into our progeny, who eventually grow up and present for all the community to see, the values we placed in their education.

» Not A Tweeter on 02.08.10 @ 10:15 AM

I don’t use Twitter very much, but think that you are missing some of the ways people use it. What I see most often is celebrity usage, as a way to update their fans on what they are doing in a short and simply format. i.e. Lindsay Lohan telling people that she is “Going to to be staring in new movie X” or something…

Useful? Maybe not to some people. Others seem to enjoy keeping tabs on people important to them. It is typically not used as an instant message service as you describe (i.e. “Hey John, how are you?”), as the most common use is to send mass public messages, not private messages, although they are an option.

Telling people what you are doing or thinking, who are interested in knowing these things, is certainly a form of communication, even if no one cares enough about you or me to follow these aspects of our life with interest.

Regarding sending letters, good for you! You do realize though that many people send unique emails to people, right? Not all emails are the generic messages you are supposed to forward to all of your friends that you are referring to here. One annoying area of email communication should not be used as a reason to cast out the whole technology. It would be like saying all mail is bad because sometimes I get junk mail I don’t want. Strange conclusion…

Why would you assume that someone who doesn’t read books is a Twitterer? It really sounds like you are making an unfounded assumption. Can you consider that the person in question may have been making a JOKE on LENO…?

You might want to learn a little (or a lot) more about email and twitter before writing pointed and uninformed articles about them. =)

» Tweet or not to tweet. . . on 02.08.10 @ 12:26 PM

Paul, you only get to use “akin” once per column.

» @Michael on 02.09.10 @ 06:59 PM

“Twits are for letting your friends know what you’re doing at the moment. For example, “studying for math exam”, “shopping at Bloomingdale”

After reading Michael’s explanation of the “real purpose” of tweeting, I tend to agree with Paul - Twitting is for twits. They must have some illusion that anybody really cares about hourly updates on your mundane existence.

Just what I need - a constant deluge of trivia from everyone I know. I have my own life thank you.