Not a Twit

But then again, why on earth would anyone want to know what I'm thinking at any given minute--and why on earth should I be asked to provide it?
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Is that a rhetorical question?

Don't worry about it. Twittering erodes the attention span.

Joe, I'm with you (at present).
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I have many friends who are insistent that Twitter is the "killer app" for all sorts of purposes -- marketing, peer-to-peer communication, business contacts, etc. -- but, as always I'm in the "late adopter" quadrant.
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I can't even keep up with the flow of daily e-mail. My business partner and I were just laughing about spending a thousand bucks on a fax machine when we started our business in 1990. That damn machine revolutionized business!! (heh)
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Anyway, I'm sure I'll start tittering (tweeting?) at some point, and, by then, everyone else will have moved on to the next "killer app."

You won't be missing much.
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I couple twitters that I read occasionally, but I don't contribute.

It's easy, Joe Klein.
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Sign up, it takes two seconds.
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There's not a lot to figure out, which is why so many journalists have picked it up.
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Seriously, try it...if you don't like it, you don't have to do it.
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It's like reading a CNN chyron, just not as stupid and irrelevant (and one-way).

Don't be a wuss. Think of it as just another form of commenting - like the threads here. You can speak when you have something to say and only then.

Joe Klein
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Trust me on this, if McCain can do it so can you. Here is how it benefits a journo. Say something remarkable happens and you are there to see it on one of your trips abroad but you can't figure out a way to make it into an article or a Swampland post. Just twitter it and the word will get out. Also even if you don't send any tweets yourself, just by following other people like Congress critters and other journos you can catch all kinds of things that you might not otherwise hear about until later. Some talking heads like Rick Sanchez and David Shuster even use twitter to get ideas for their shows and stories that are being under covered. Now I realize that you might feel like you have quite enough sources but I am sure you will be surprised once you get on twitter to see some of your fellow Villagers already there.

Recent Tweets of mine:
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Stuart_Zechman: Lovely Bride just put Slovak blueberry cake w/fabulous name "Bublanina" into oven. Try saying that 3 times w/ a mouthful of blueberry cake.

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Stuart_Zechman: PCMag.Com: "Facebook Turns Site into a Democracy" http://tinyurl.com/c84y8r I wonder if we can let Facebook loose on the US Senate?

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Stuart_Zechman: Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis: "I don't think it [$45 billion in taxpayer money] will fundamentally change the way we run the company" Super

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Stuart_Zechman: Best Bookmark Evah: Lovely Bride cut rectangle w/super-kewl & big stamps on it out from package she got from China after massive eBay binge.

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Stuart_Zechman: You know, I remember there was a book some guy wrote called "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot". I wonder what that guy is up to these days?

I'm jayackroyd on twitter (like everywhere else.) I like it. It's fun. It's also been interesting watching the Beltway media come herding over the last ten days or so. KT was in early. And TK, pourmecoffee and fourlegsgood keep the humor quotient high. And jayrosen_nyu is a twittering machine on the news business.

I won't name names, but a good fraction of the Beltway newbies don't come across so well. Evidence of the echo chamber....

So SZ, you're not worried that the vapid Villagers will use Twitter as a more highly refined echo chamber?

SZ: "It's like reading a CNN chyron, just not as stupid and irrelevant (and one-way)." best description EVER of twitter.

Already, this blogging business causes me, at times, to share thoughts that probably should be subject to more, uh, thought.
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As long as you mentioned it, it might be a nice time for a mea culpa post about the NSA program, telecom immunity and the Yoo memo's in general. It's hard for me to imagine that you can read what's being published today and not feel betrayed as an American.

This is kinda typical:
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When Obama says NYT story on offer to Russia isn't accurate, is he spinning? The leak came from admin. officials. End of the honeymoon?
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Process, pre-defined narrative, savviness.

Actually joyo, I think using twitter as a chryon source for ricksanchezcnn is what led to the journos herding.
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AMC has a pretty good faq up about twitter and AMC on twitter. Anal sex does come up, but briefly.
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Hey! Preview was just my friend. I'd messed up the link.

Cliff
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Unless they block everybody I am pretty sure that you can tweet most MSM figures. So even if they are looking for an echo chamber a lot of them won't find one. At least thats my understanding of it.

Apparently Jake Tapper (jaketapper) doesn't like what he's hearing:
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protocol for blocking twitterers? my general thot is life is too short for this to be a place to be insulted. respectful debate fine.

I'm already stretching my Commodore 64 to the limit just commenting here. You wouldn't believe how hard it was to get Linux running on that thing.

sg preceding the twitter name with an @ sign sends a public message that's received even if the destination name is not following you.
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As for vapid Village echoing, there is indeed some of that going on. But there are good posters too. OKnox of the AFP, AriMelber of the Nation others.

and pourmecoffee, of course.

I must have twitters! And auto-update web pages. And e-mail alerts. And my Blackberry. And loud cell-phone users standing in line behind me.
Because otherwise I hear the other voices.
The dark ones.
The ones inside my head.
Oh noez, they've caught me! Oh teh voicez, teh voicez!!!!

So SZ, you're not worried that the vapid Villagers will use Twitter as a more highly refined echo chamber?
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Many Villagers use their mainstream news platforms primarily as an ostensible altar, the trappings of exaltation and faux gravity of which are meant to camouflage everyday Village vapidity.
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Twitter deprives the dullard elites of the styrofoam Corinthian columns, the "dramatic" midi-performed jingles, the "BREAKING: TERROR COLOR CODE AT LEVEL YELLOW" chyrons, and the pompous, nasal "news-speak" intonation of which The Daily Show has made much hilarity over the years.

I worry that all this twittering will have a negative effect on the depth and accuracy of the reportage to which I have become accustomed.

PNNTO
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That was some AWESOME snark!

I have a twitter account which I basically got to follow pourmecoffee's one liners (since he won't post them here anymore). There are a few other commenters I follow, and I'm always pleased to see one of KT's quarterly reports. I have tweeted a few thoughts myself, but ultimately, I can't work within the 140 character limit confines (obviously I could use an editor), so I find myself twittering less and checking it less. I don't text, either.
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Final thought - if you think you may not enjoy it, you don't need it.

copied this here from MS's twitter thread:
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I work at home. I am an academic on sabbatical, writing a book, experiencing the loneliness of the long-distance runner. Facebook and Swampland are my break rooms, and Twitter is my water cooler. This may change when I am back on campus and in the classroom. But right now, Web 2.0 is a wonderful thing.
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also beer.