Why some people just HATE Twitter?

As I told you in my previous post,I used to "snob" twitter before knowing exactly what it was. The bad reputation came from various readings I wanted to share with you.

Today, I shall develop the first point.

The anti-Twitter arguments divide into 3 main ideas

1. "Twitter is making you stupid "
2. "Twitter is dangerously addictive "
3. "Twitter is a threat to Democraty"

 1.Twitter is making you stupid  

 In order to write this post,I have courageously aligned myself in the Twitting-line

(@Pixar For The Birds)

I wonder: "Is it just me, or do we all feel that stupid...?"

I have also been doing some research.

What a paradox! In order to answer the first question, I entered "Is Google making us stupid?" in Google search. I had then a fantastic, brilliant, intelligent article as a gift result from...Google, well, from Nicholas Carr

Nicholas Carr is a former executive editor of the Harvard Business Review and the author of the recent book The Big Switch, Rewiring the world, from Edison to Google.

I can't help “ReTweeting” = to repeat a twitter posting (= tweet) of someone else with the (fully or mainly) copied text of a tweet

... oops! sharing this excerpt with you:

" I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle."

 This is exactly how I felt yesterday, on a quiet Sunday afternoon.

 For several days in a row, I had been stuck with my iPhone or my MacBook, from our kitchen table at breakfast, to the bed just before falling asleep. I had almost forgotten the sensation that reading used to give me until I shut my computer down and settled quietly in my favorite armchair to read next to my youngest daughter.

The effect was immediate. As soon I found my relaxed and focused reading attitude, my body switched from tensed or "hyper" mode to peaceful attention. My breathing slowed down and I took some big and deep breaths. I also noticed I could still connect with my daughter and feel her quiet presence next to me, also absorbed into reading.I recognize this state as a "flow". (read this article about flow in Fast Company When you can at the same time be fully focused and also aware of every thing around you with rare acuity.

Could we experience "flow" when twitting? If it's the case, it must be some "extwizzy flow", hyper speedy flow! 

 It reminds me of the rebirthing experiences I had .During rebirthing, if you are not cautious, you can get into  hyperventilation. At some point, you connect so closely your breathing, without stopping , that you just go "numb"...

Numbness and dumbness are very close!

So, yes, I guess we need to watch out for keeping our mind alert and remembering to disconnect from the screens from time to time...

Conclusion: if we are not cautious, yes, twitter could make us "numb",light-headed, dizzy, dumb, idiot. This is directly linked with the second item : Twitter is dangerously addictive, which I will develop in my next post, if I resist twittertemptation

Bonus!

The author was referring, back in 2007, to "Google" and the Internet in general. It's all the more pertinent for Twitter.

With Twitter, you are constantly "decoding" short secret messages from all parts of the world, 24 hrs a day,from anyone to anyone, about anything ! A crazy merry-go-round of millions of 140 characters spinning around each of us, making us dizzy and wanting for more, afraid of stepping off in case we missed something...

With Twitter, you have your triple shot of intense internet stimulation and one way rocket ticket to the moon! Your brain won't resist the twitterific jet lag!Actually, on May 4th, 2009, Nicholas Carr was interviewed about Twitter and its social and intellectual consequences.

"Is Twitter making us stupider?"

His answer is: Yes! Listen to his interview,his answers are brilliant and intelligent!

Are we  changing the way we think and process information?

 Do you think it might affect our understanding as well?

 Is Twitter definitely changing our brains?