I was being interviewed on SKYPE the other day for some kind of generational reality road trip show with Nate when the interviewer asked me what I thought of Facebook and Twitter and the like, hoping to get some kind of old codger reaction to all this new-fangled technology that is ruining the world. She wasn't disappointed.
I told her I thought Twitter was basically a work of the devil and then said a bunch of random things because I was flustered by the crappy sound on SKYPE and the -at least- thirty second lag between my statements and her reception of them. It is hard to be articulate in that situation, at least it is for a technologically challenged person like myself.
As a result, I spent a sleepless night trying to come up with a better response, and I came up with the real reason I hate Twitter in particular and most electronic communication in general. It looks ugly! I hate the abbreviations and the typographical short hand that all proficient Twitterers use.
LOL
:)
:(
R U OK?
L8 for appt
Gr8 to hear from U
Yuck. That was not an abbreviation, just my reaction to the whole thing.
I know I am an old English teacher and therefore the worst kind of cultural dinosaur, but I just love the way a page looks when it is filled with blocks of beautiful print. I like the way Starkeyland looks, even though I know I could make it look much more modern by having sidebars and scrolls and links all over the place and adding all sorts of nifty colors, but I hate that.
Even though I hate the content of The Wall Street Journal, I love the way it looks. Watching Fox News always makes me nauseous and not just because of its content. I much prefer watching talking heads on PBS. Back in the good old days I was proud of the way The Ram Page looked compared to all of the other glitzed up high school publications that other journalism programs produced. True, we didn't clean up with awards at Colorado Press Day, but I always just attributed that to the rotten taste and values of the judges.
I appreciate the Tod Helton/Dexter Fowler Rockies commercial where they are sitting in the lockerroom and Tod asks Dexter "What's a Tweet?" Fowler explains and Helton's reaction is the same as mine. "You mean you tell people your daily schedule?! Who cares what you are doing? You're basically still a rookie."
8am rewriting Gr8 Gatsby
10am running marathon LOL
11am lunch w/K
etc. etc. etc.
YUCK
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I had a lot of trouble getting used to Twitter, and I do not post to it (mostly) except to announce to friends and those interested when I post a new blog, or if there is a truly interesting piece of information about Paris which I want to share. I've discovered that if I want the information to "get out there" to a certain age range, then participation is necessary.
It was increasingly becoming a pain in the ass to try to teach students to write who think that text spelling, "text speak" was legitimate in academic writing; on the other hand, some of the creative spelling and working around how to present information in the shortest way possible is an interesting look at language shift and change.
I guess I am slack dab in the middle of the whole issue. I see the usefulness of newer forms of communication. I am, though, right with you on this: "It is hard to be articulate in that situation...". I'm not, let's say, the most parsimonious writer, and I lean more towards Proust than Hemingway in style. Sure, it may be another form of laziness that I am that way, but I find trying to keep the presentation of information under 140 characters to be a pain in the ass. :) (I do like the smileys though, haha! [I resisted typing "lol" there, heh].)
You just keep on being your codger self. I don't think anyone would want you to be any other way. We love you as you are.
P.S. I am, though, very happy that you find, as an old-fashioned English teacher, blogging a good thing.
Post a Comment