Is it all tweeting necessary?
From www.theelusivefish.com
I’ve joined the wonderful world of Twitter, but I have a confession to make: I’m still a bit of a sceptic.
The horror in Mumbai has show again the power of so-called citizen journalism, with some of my coursemates at City keenly discovering the latest developments through Twitter, well before mainstream outlets were able to offer them the news.
As thrilling and novel as it is to get up-to-the-second updates from people on the ground, does anyone else wonder whether it’s all that crucial to our understanding of the world? And whether the dangers may well outweigh the (in my view) quite minor benefits?
Does it make a difference if I only know the news every hour or 3 or 6 hours, as opposed to every few seconds?
After all, we all have to live our lives as well, and while new-media evangelists get wrapped up in converting us to THE FUTURE, they steer clear of warning how time-consuming and distracting all this new-fangled web stuff can be.
Or am I just being an old-fashioned cynic?
P.S. I would recommend this great article by Bryan Appleyard, that was published in the Sunday Times earlier in the year. And Beth Mellor has blogged on a new book, No Time To Think – The Menace of Media Speed and the 24-hour News Cycle, that explores the pitfalls of the 24-hour news cycle.
