Image Grenade

 I’ll admit it; I’m a bit of a dilettante. Not that I follow trends, because I’m usuallydiscovering things long before the general public does. Of course that means, by thetime everyone else has caught on, I’m off on the next big thing. That’s just one of the reasons I’ve both joined and left Twitter. When everyone else was logging on to My Space, I had already abandoned it for Facebook, where most of my friends who are not pre-teens, were posting. Then I found Twitter. At first I thought it was great. It forced people to organize their thoughts, and be concise, I mean, with 140 characters, you have to be succinct and it was a great way to get messages to friends abroad without having to be logged on to my computer or paying to international toll calls.
In retrospect, I should have seen Oprah’s joining as the death knell of the medium, at least for me. I hung on for a while, but then I began noticing a disturbing trend. Although it’s nice to have a public account so people can follow you and read what you have to say, I noticed the same rude behavior, against which I rage in daily life, was now being mirrored on the site. Suddenly an influx of  cyber hooligans, who, under the guise of freedom of expression, were cyber abusing other people. Perhaps they thought anonymity gave them the freedom to do so, but the vitriol being spewed became increasingly unpalatable.  Another reason for my exit was the increase in, as we say in the Britain “big uppin’ yourself”.  I mean I’m a decent person with a lot to offer, but I’m not quite egotistical enough to believe I’m cool simply because 1,000 other idiots follow me. I mean I know there are fetish freaks for whom this stuff is gold; people who live to hear about what color knickers you’re wearing, or whether your bowel movements are sinkers or floaters, but I really don’t think those without mental issues care that I spilled salsa on my new Hunting Beach, Surf City sweatshirt. And unless they’re removing the stain for me, I’m not even that interested.  Of course, I’ll still follow BBC Breaking News and a few people that I like, but I knew it was time to go when a growing number of Twits became Twats.