I'm kinda nostalgic for the pre-Twitter era.
There's no doubt that Twitter has given those without a voice a public arena in which they can express informed opinions, coordinate opposition movements , and break news happening in real time (examples of each linked). However, I think you and I both know that Twitter is also responsible for introducing you to the most inane thoughts of your friends, neighbors, and even celebrities.
Besides being newly privy to what my 61 year old Uncle Bob thinks of the new Nicki Minaj video, Twitter is also guilty of something much worse. It's responsible for confirming a frightening suspicion all of us have had about our elected officials: they can be idiotic sometimes, just like us.
For example, just yesterday through The Hill's "Twitter Room", I was able to read Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa's valuable opinion on the recent UN-Syria Resolution debacle. Though I join him in condemning Russia and China for their veto of the resolution that asks President al-Assad to step down from the Syrian government, I do not join him in taking to my Twitter account to rattle off a hasty, misspelled, and politically incorrect tweet. The tweet read:
"I app laude Amb Susan Rice strong statement abt Soviet Russia and Red China veto of Syria resoluition at U.N."
Soviet Russia? Red China? Don't even get me started on his mixed policy of letter allotment and lack of possessive modifiers.
Perhaps I'm mercilessly nitpicking at an older man who should be app lauded for using such a progressive tool of civic engagement. And you maybe be right. But there's no excuse for behavior like that of Congressman Anthony Weiner who in 2011 accidentally showed all of his twitter followers his package, or for politicians like Congressman Dana Rohrabacher who settle petty disputes via twitter feeds. What's more frightening is that in January, Twitter CEO Dick Costol called 2012 the year of the "Twitter Election" : "...if candidates don't tweet, they're going to get left behind in the new digital age of microbloggin". What do you guys think? Is this truly the age we're headed towards, where politicians get left in the dust if their thoughts don't get published to the internet? Is this necessarily a bad thing? I'm wary, but I'm up for hearing an argument as to why this is a good thing.
