TWITTER…TWITTER…AIN’T IT NEAT…
(…it just made an IPO…tweet…tweet…tweet!)

There’s nothing like an IPO (Initial Public Offering) to give the Wall Street investing herd the equivalent of menopausal –hot flashes- as it stampedes itself to do some grabbing while the grabbing’s good. Especially when there’s been a long pre-offering teasing period from one of those pet technologies to hype up its erstwhile opening stock valuation.

So, the early-bird syndrome kicks in, clamoring for pieces of that offering, thereby driving the stock price into the stratosphere…at least for a while… until that fever for it slowly brings it back down to a more pedestrian level of reality. That’s just the way the market herd reacts to these IPO events. Canny, contrarian, types, on the other hand, will have taken a calculated risk long before that moment…privately buying in on the cheap…and sitting quietly on the sidelines until the frenzy for it has peaked in value…then dumping it for a quick buck. So it seems to be the case with Twitter. For now it’s having a –bluebird- soaring moment. Sooner or later, however, it will be seen fluttering along at a less exalted level, and, hopefully, not flying up anyone’s nose by then.

The big question in our mind however is this…just exactly what is so great about… twitter…and what makes it such a darling of the technology set? As one aficionado tried to explain it to me…twitter…is the equivalent of giving everyone a bullhorn so they can all holler to others of like-minded interests… yoohoo…I’m over here! Why that ability should be such an attractive thing for folks to be able to do…is a puzzlement.  From that perspective, this suggests that, indeed, twitter…is for twits! Well, perhaps not, and that’s just a generational bias (although its habit-forming attraction seems to have been adopted by a wide range of ages and occupations).

Another of its less attractive aspects, besides the zombie-like inattentive trance daily non-stop use seems to develop in those addicted to it (a kind of zonked-out focus which literally lets folks walk straight into a lamp post), is its apparent degeneration of the English language. Because of the number of characters it limits per “tweet” it has produced a particular argot which, for lack of a better label for it might be called –FRACPIXLISH-, that is, staccato bursts of fractured, pixellated, English, to communicate thoughts about… anything.  What the long term consequences of such superficiality of thought and expression might be, are not very encouraging. Literacy and an ability to absorb and digest information and knowledge from a broader form of language, could very well die out.

Which would lead us back to a more primitive world, one where the highest form of linguistic capability and expression would only be …Me, Tarzan…you, Jane?

CENTURION