That’s the conclusion I’ve come to from The Oregonian opinion section, which last week ran TWO (2!) editorials by middle aged men ranting about this newfangled, society-eroding Twitter device.
I love articles which amount to a middle-aged person shaking their head in bemusement, making jokes straight out of Zits comic strip, as they look over some young person’s shoulder and glimpse their confusing new lifestyle. This gawk-and-awe genre typically comprises ALL of Newsweek magazine (hilarious recent articles: “When Teens Fall Apart” and “No Epidemic of Teen Oral Sex”) but it finds solid footing on the opinion pages of big daily papers, too.
The O’s first Twitter piece of the week was Leonard Pitts Jr.’s column last Wednesday, “I will never tweet you”. “Today, I make you a solemn promise: I will never Twitter you. Or is it tweet? I’m never sure,” writes Pitts. “And here, let me pause to help the technologically illiterate catch up. One uses Twitter to send tweets (no, I am NOT making that up!) i.e., electronic notes, to one’s online friends, family and other subscribers.”
The second piece, from the Sunday paper, is painfully titled, “Politicians now caught betwixt and betwitter.” (I am NOT making this up!)
I feel like Twitter is one of those new technologies that everyone loves to hate, but most people will sign onto eventually in some form. Remember when people made cell phone jokes? Anyway, right now we have this bizarre taboo against admitting that we use the internet to socialize. While almost everyone I know (except my parents – yet – and a few tree-sitting friends) can be found on Facebook at some point in the day, it seems like social networking sites’ sole defenders are freakazoids like this guy and Lindsay Lohan. Maybe it’s because useful technologies that carve out an addictive niche don’t really need defenders. Twitter isn’t going to crumble if Leonard Pitts, Jr., upholds his pledge to never sign on to the craaaazy website, but Leonard Pitts, Jr. is obviously already feeling a little threatened and overwhelmed by Twitter’s influence on his social scene. Really, columnists for big print dailies should be scrambling to get ahead of the curve and learn how to use social networking sites to reach more readers and save their own jobs, rather than lamenting technology from the stone age sidelines.
Could you please summarize this into 140 characters?
@Graham Best comment ever.
@Sarah Thank you. This is everything I yell about every day to well…no one is here to listen to me…but it doesn’t stop me from yelling about it. Old Media? Meet New Media. Now shake hands and sign up for EventBox.
Props to Portland Mercury on this post … dead on.
Dear Leonard Pitts Jr.: You know how I found this post? (in your parlance you would say “article” or “column”) I saw that the PM had tweeted it. Funny how that works.
PS – can somebody *please* help the PM with their Twitterfeed settings so we don’t get the dupes … yes I’m a broken record on this … 🙂
GET OFF MY LAWN
good thing “old people” cant stand twitter.. thats the last thing we need on the twit.. old people with old points of view…
I’m somewhere between the blog and the tweet, and 31 years old. Is that middle-aged? I love the bloggings, and have signed-up for Twitter, however I still find the point of it hard to grasp. If I wanted people to join me somewhere, I’d text them. If I wanted to blog, I’d blog. Maybe I’m just getting old…
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http://secskin.blogspot.com
Excellent post and thanks to @cincan for tweeting it. I think it’s clear that media people like @OregonianSteve and @StephStricklen get it, while others like Leonard Pitts are too busy asking, “Hey you punk kid – what do think this is, a library?”
Well done, Sarah! I think sometimes I have too MUCH patience for trying to explain this stuff, when sometimes pointing and laughing at the spittle-dripping geezer is the only rational approach.
I’m 50 and guys like Pitts give us old guys a bad name.
Even though I write for the Oregonian, I must confess to some cringing as it relates to talk in the paper about this newfangled Twitter thingy. Luckily these opinions don’t represent all of the paper. Oregonian film critic Shawn Levy is about the most prolific Twitterer I know.
Explain me how Titter is different from sending out spam texts to your friends? Can’t people just spend their time jerking off and NOT have to tell everybody they know about ? Meeeeeeeeh in my day people had diaries and I was happy cause I didn’t have to read ’em meeeeeeeeeeeeeh!!!
Chunty, you forgot the hashtag. #getoffmylawn
Old people adore their privacy. 750 Twitter accounts hacked on Friday. Have fun with your social media.
@kveton
duuuude I know. Sorry. I disabled the old feed I had set up and now I can’t get Twitterfeed to validate our RSS URL and I basically want to punch the internet. We are on a temporary Twitter hiatus until this is sorted out.
A) Isn’t The Oregonian on Twitter? i’m confused.
B) CNN and AP reported in the past couple of weeks that they are learning of breaking news via Twitter before anywhere else- the Turkish airlines crash in Amsterdam was first reported via Twitter – almos 20 minutes before “mainstream” media started “breaking news” feeds.
In true fashion though, a breaking news story will flash across the Portland Mercury and Twitter 3 months before the O decides it is breaking news and then not give anyone else credit.
I wonder if the O’s building is for sale.
I love articles which amount to a young person shaking their head in bemusement and making jokes straight out of Cat and Girl webcomics as they look over some old person’s shoulder and glimpse their old-timey, set-in-their-ways lifestyle…
I love them. Really, I do. Then again, I like Andy Rooney, too. I guess, really, I’m just a big fan of the whole “arch indignation” genre, particularly in contrast to things that exhibit more of a “self-righteous” style.
There are tons of old farts on twitter. I’m an honorary member of the twitter old farts club. #getoffmylawn.
I miss my friends.
Folks in The O’s online department maintain several Twitter accounts, mostly for tweeting headlines and links to news and entertainment postings. Reporters also have been tweeting live from news events. The op-ed section is a whole different animal and doesn’t necessarily reflect The O’s own opinions. As a former MSM journalist, I do think that if you can’t figure out how to use technology to do your job better, you ought to be fired for incompetence or lack of imagination or both.
I can’t stand fucking twitter. I think it’s very narcissistic for people to think that we constantly need to be updated about them picking their nose.
Mind you, I’m on Live Journal, which is, itself, a rather narcissistic site. But on there, at least people generally try to form complete sentences/ideas even paragraphs! and the subject matter tends to be more interesting. Although some people have started posting their daily twitters there too! Fuckers.
Yeah! To Speck! Here’s what I think: 70 is the new 50. 50 is the new 40 and 40 is the new 30… My mom was intimidated by technology at 60 twelve years ago.(bless her heart RIP).
Its not your actual age anymore. And there are YOUNG 40’s and 50’s and 60’s.
I think its before or after technology. I almost cried the day I went to the library (hadn’t been in a while)years back and I couldn’t find the card catalog and didn’t know how to use the pc and felt very stupid and was too afraid to ask.
I am one of those now, trying to explain Twitter to others who ‘just don’t get it’. I have only 3 real friends on Twitter, over 1000 that I am following, over 600 followers and I’ve been a member not quite 3 weeks.
It is hard to explain Twitter. No one around me knew what Twitter was or hadn’t even heard of it. I found out for myself out of curiosity. After a couple of days I felt myself being sucked in and deleted my account. The next day I reinstated it!
I for one am having fun with Twitter. More than Facebook-which I could never really get into.
thanks for reading,
Jalie Sturgeon
ps I wouldn’t be here right now if it weren’t for Twitter. thanks PORTLAND MERCURY! I am now following you!
BTW- I am a YOUNG forty one. My Twitter name is jstur.
Dear Jalie Sturgeon,
I can’t but help to marvel at the fact that your name bears such an uncanny resemblance to mine! Kudos 🙂
~ Jason Stengren