It would be easier to say Twitter is a colossal waste of time, though it would be more accurate to admit I just don't know what it's for. I feel like it is some tool I encounter in the hardware store that I don't know how or why to use. After all, many of us got along just fine without it for years...how essential can it be?
Then I read an interesting essay like Bob Mankoff's post about the relationship between Tweets and cartoon captions in the New Yorker (actually this one is part two; I am eager to read part one). I am struck by the ways comedy writers use twitter, as a 'warm up' and to accomplish specific joke 'moves', and it makes me wonder whether I am being too rigid in my thinking about this kind of writing....
Around our house, we have a special respect for people who can up with unexpected uses of existing materials - re-purposing is on level with invention. Finding a way to use Twitter as a tool (rather than in its boring self-promoting, over-sharing, prescribed way) is startling in that manner.
Will I figure this out? I don't know, but I think a solution would involve exploring the limitations of the medium. I know there is an upper limit on characters, and that there are ways to tie messages together through special characters (@, #). It seems like there must be poets who are interested in limitations who are employing this thing...I am thinking about Twitterwriting and welcome any suggestions...
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