With the twitter craze reaching new levels of absurdity, SlateV has set out to satirize Twitter and the whole concept of micro-blogging. Flutter mocks the entire institution of Twitter, from its ridiculous terminology (“tweeting”), to its absurd 140 character limit. Flutter instead proposes a new form of “flapping”, and limiting the user to only 26 characters – hardly enough for anyone to post anything meaningful other than “in the bathroom” or “drinking coffee”. Twitter’s 140 character limit is used to stress the triviality of the daily things in our lives; this concept of reporting little things in a micro-blog, rather than maintaining a normal blog (which we all know is way too time consuming for our busy lives) is just a testament to how lazy we have become.
I agree with the way that “Flutter” mocks the premises behind twitter. With new forms of technology that allow us to access the internet, anywhere and at any time, we have become so digitally wired, that we feel the need to utilize this technology. Why else did we pay extra for that iPhone, or for that internet access on our cell phone?
“Going to the game this Saturday. Go Blue!” – 1:30 pm
“I’m hungry” – 1:34 pm
“Game is about to start!” – 2:55 pm
“OSU sucks.” – 3:01 pm
“Tate Forcier is a god.” – 3:30 pm
We are flooded with a wall of information that we don’t necessarily need to know, or that we already know, and that is precisely what micro-blogging is. Whereas normal blogging can be insightful and spark creative discussions, micro-blogging can not. What type of information are we going to take from updates such as “this bio lecture is SOO boring” or “I’m studying at the UGLi”? There is nothing to discuss, nothing to debate. I already know that person A thinks bio is boring, and that person B likes to study at the UGLi in between classes – I don’t need twitter to remind me of that. Twitter banks on the fact that we love to update our current status, no matter where we are. So far, it has been successful, with celebrities and the media embracing it with open arms. However, after taking one look at the “Flutter” mockumentary, we have to ask ourselves – just how far are we willing to go?
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I agree, micro-blogging has brought a new flow of useless information to the internet. It was already bad enough with Facebook statuses. Now there are entire applications devoted to letting the world know things that most people can already assume. I also like that you mentioned that micro-blogging never really sparks a discussion. This suggests that micro-blogging has simply created space on the internet for users to use for meaningless, un-filterable streams of information.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree, and I actually did not think about how pointless the information that is shared on twitter really is until reading this. It is true that blogs can be very creative and can be enjoyable to read. People can express opinions, ideas, or share works that they have created. But micro-blogging does not allow any of this. It is information that we do not need to know and to be honest, most of the time we do not really care. It is definately simply space that is taken up by pointless information about the trivial parts of everyone's lives.
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