Editor’s Letter

Dear Diary,
This month we launched a new website and I inadvertently got addicted to Twitter. It started off innocently enough. A few updates that were either jokes or various attempts to internet market to our lovely readers. Then I stopped using phone, email and verbal communication with people I’m in the same room as in favour of @ messages. I realized I had a problem the day I rolled out of bed and the first site I checked was Twitter and not my Friendster profile.

Those four words “What are you doing?” greet me on my Twitter homepage whenever I need a distraction (every three minutes). It’s pretty interesting to see how people choose to interpret that question. For some it’s to post fascinating musings about the world around us. For others it’s an opportunity to roleplay that you’re Cobra Commander. And then there are those people who think it means they should broadcast every inane detail of their life (you can tell they’re asleep when they’ve stopped tweeting). But the one thing we’re all “doing” is getting hooked on the most streamlined form of computer crack the world has ever known. Facebook has too many bells and whistles and MSN doesn’t allow me to publicly broadcast my conversations. Twitter is the perfect internet drug.

I know all about computer crack. Initially Twitter gave me horrible flashbacks to those rough couple of years where I battled an addiction to IRC (my excuse is I was in university and going through an experimental phase). If you didn’t need to click on that link, congratulations are in order. You are less of a nerd than I am. They say a drop in work performance is a surefire sign of addiction. Well, the only way the Editor’s Letter was getting written this month is if it was about Twitter and the first draft was only 140 characters long and I wrote it on my phone.

I do like the cap of 140 characters. It’s like one of those free papers you read on the bus. Quick factoids are all I need thank you very much. I’ll flesh out the details with my imagination if it’s really important. If you can’t say it in 140 characters you shouldn’t say it all. I wish some of my more loquacious friends would try capping their conversations at 140 characters.

Remember when the way the world worked was internet celebrities were trying to become real celebrities? Well, now real celebrities are trying to become internet celebrities. If you are famous and don’t have a Twitter account right now you’re not going to be famous for long. Even The Terrorists are on Twitter. It’s true, they’re using Twitter to organize attacks and kill you. At least that’s what Wikipedia says, so it must be the truth. When I’m not checking out Twitter on my laptop or on my phone, I’m having a lot of awkward conversations with people about how much I enjoy reading their Twitter feeds. I’ve never said two words to a lot of these people but I know what they’ve had for dinner every night this week. “Hey man, so we’re both internet stalking each other now hey? How did that bubble bath you had two hours ago work out for ya?”

In conclusion Diary, Twitter is dangerous. Stay the fuck away from it if you, like myself, sit in front of your computer all day, drinking coffee. But in all seriousness, Twitter is awesome and you should probably follow us at www.twitter.com/ionmagazine

Photography: Toby Marie Bannister http://www.tobymarie.com/