Who the Tweet Cares?

If I were to go off simply what most people were talking about today, I would think that the biggest piece of world news is that Miley Cyrus cut her hair, Kanye West is dating Kim Kardashian or Taylor Swift is never, ever, ever getting back together with her ex. Not that the Mitt Romney is the Republican Presidential candidate or that there has been an uprising in Syria for the past 18 months or that the Taliban cut the throats of 17 Afghan civilians or that two American soldiers were shot and killed by the Afghan Army just the day before. The fact that I even know those three things without having to think twice says too much; because there is just one thing I do not understand: Why do people care? Why do people act as if Kristen Stewart cheating on Robert Pattinson affects their daily lives? It doesn’t. I’m not saying that I hate celebrities or that I don’t occasionally talk about my favorite movie stars, because I do. All I am saying is that I don’t have daily conversations about what so-and-so tweeted the other day. Maybe this is because I do not have a twitter. I have never really understood the concept. I have always wondered what makes people think something and then log on and write it for the world to see. Chances are, most people are not going to give it a second thought. But the amount of times that my friends have had conversations revolving around twitter, to me, is laughable.

With the way technology is today, people are connected all the time. Train stations, restaurants, cars, school hallways, there are people talking, texting, tweeting, Facebook-ing and emailing. There seems to be this pandemic that not only do people not know how to be social, but their patience is decreasing. We seem to live in a time of instant gratification, where everything is expected to happen right away. The generations growing up since the technological boom will not know anything other than this. They will not know how it feels to look up books in a library or use a payphone, or to not have a cell phone. The next time you are out at a restaurant or waiting for a movie to start, take a look around and see just how many people are playing with their smartphones. The results may be shocking. Even the way things are marketed has changed dramatically in the past five years. Cell phone commercials used to be about call clarity, remember the Verizon “can you hear me now?” guy? Now, they are about speed and connectivity and how many aps you can download. On television shows, there is usually a hashtag in the bottom corner; in case you want to let your friends know that you’re tuning in. Even daily household products have pages on Facebook that you can ‘like.’ Newspapers are now more popular online and with almost every news story, there is a section at the bottom for the reader to post a comment. This way, your voice really is heard.

I do not necessarily think that this technology boom is a bad thing, because I know that technological advances have solved problems too, along with making life easier for college students like myself. I am simply saying that a 12 year old with an iPhone doesn’t really make sense. It is not a crime to sit and wait for your table at a restaurant and actually talk to the people that you came with.