TMI, Tweeters

Oh great! Oprah sent her first "tweet" today. That gives the official stamp of approval to the millions who have the arrogance to think I actually give a crap about what they are doing every few minutes/hours or so. NO, I DON'T! If you have so little to do with your time, volunteer at the animal shelter or a food pantry or clean up the neighborhood...anything but sit around endlessly sending out 140-word missives on your favorite Shakespeare quote for the day or what you had for breakfast or what you think of my blog. Geez! Oprah is in it for the money, the fame, the adoration of "ordinary" people who can now send her idiotic messages. I can just hear the screams echoing the paroxysm of joy worldwide in places like The Sudan and Ciudad Juarez. I'll bet within weeks she'll have someone doing it for her. Ugh!
You might consider a blog equally wasteful in terms of time management...and you could be correct. I blog because I want to get my thoughts down before they're lost due to senility. Sometimes, there's a gem of truth...sometimes it's just me writing for myself. I don't really expect anybody to read or respond though it happens at times. The point is: I do it for ME. This Twitter business of chronicling the minutiae of everyday life just does not make sense to me. I'm not a technophobe. I have a portable communicating device called a cell phone. Of course, my cell phone is used to call people and to text my students who no longer respond to email. That's it...no internet, no sports scores 24/7, no fantasy leagues...nothing...just communication; oh, and I don't abbreviate words while texting, either: I feel it necessary to set a good example with regard to the use of the written word.
Shaq and Ashton Kutcher are soon-to-be has-beens and probably need to keep their names out in the public eye so they can reap huge rewards before they are no longer "it." Perhaps Oprah is feeling the same way, or perhaps she can't line up enough authors who lied in non-fiction tales or guests who are Dr. Phil rejects.
I was just chatting tonight with a couple in the neighborhood, and the topic of social networking came up. Keeping up with people you know or knew but have lost touch with...I'm fine with that. I go to Facebook every three or four days, but I don't have time to hang out and chat for hours. I'm not a curmudgeon, but, seriously, I have stuff to do! Don't you?
So, Oprah, Ashton and Shaq: enjoy all the free time you have. Money gets you a LOT of that; ordinary "Joe Workers" like myself just don't have it in us to keep up with your thrill-a-minute lives though we know you're DYING to hear about how MY day is going.
Have your people email my people, and we'll chat.