Twitter: 2009's "Must Have" Item... (Are you serious?)

Twittering celebrities have been all the buzz lately, rumors that John Mayer’s incessant tweeting caused his break up with Jennifer Aniston and Seth Rogen’s Twitter impersonator have been popping up all over the news.

While Twitter may be the the new "must have" item these days, I'm having a hard time jumping on board.

1. I really don’t think my life is interesting enough for me to feel like a statement is worth making on a minute- by- minute basis.

2. I don’t want people to know what I’m thinking throughout the day, providing them with a falsified façade of who they think I might be.

3. I don’t have time to update my status on a regular basis and I don’t want people interpreting me as someone with no life, the exact judgments that I place on people who update their Facebook statuses way too much. It’s true that I’m on there enough to see them changing their statuses; I just don’t want anyone to know that.

4. I’m apprehensive to start tweeting because I’m not willing to allow myself to become addicted to another program; email, Facebook and MSN waste enough of my time.

The idea of the twittering celebrities is another movement that allows people to feel that much closer to their favorite celebrities as it is based on impulsive (no publicist filtering), minute- by- minute updates assumed to be posted directly by celebrities, unlike celebrity web pages and E! Daily interviews that are all prepared by their clan of publicists and marketers.

While flipping through channels the other day, I saw Seth Rogen (Superbad) on Regis and Kelly talking about his Twitter impersonator who acts like his online Fan Club president. The first thing that came to mind after hearing him joke about it was the fragility and lack of transparency with technologies like Twitter; anyone can be who they want to be and play whatever role they choose. We as consumers, must rely on our own judgments of people, judgments that we cannot accurately formulate with celebrities.

New technologies are closing the gap between celebrities and citizens. Blogging and YouTube especially, make it simple for citizens to taste fame, while celebrities have the chance to live an anonymous life.

Caught by the Mystical Facebook Referencer

It has been mentioned in the news several times in the past year, this idea of Facebook being used as a reference by employers. While reading through the blogs of fellow students who discussed the topic, I must say that I was on the same page. How could an employer really ever access my information without being a friend?

Well, that all changed when the theory was unexpectedly tested on me last night. I will be moving to Boston for the summer and in my attempt to find housing I finally found one that sounded perfect, a group of 4 photographers from MassArt. After responding to the post, I received a message from the owner asking me to send her my Facebook page since she wanted to make sure that she knew enough about me to ensure my compatibility with her roommates. While I felt pretty confident sending her my Facebook address, I started thinking about how well my page actually represents me and whether I should start changing things that I figured a group of art students just wouldn't find very cool, untagging drunk pictures of me by the pool, or my dorky family Christmas pics.

I always shied away from including any information about myself, no relationship status, no favourite movies/music/books..., nothing about my degree, ect... I always felt like all of that information was a way of constructing an image that did not accurately portray me, rather creating a stereotype based on my likes and dislikes. Well, my rejection of a superficial me smacked me across the face last night when I thought about rushing to my page and including all of the things about me that I thought a group of art students might find appealing, favourite bands, books and artists; you know, all of that cliche art stuff. I was a victim of my own judgments.

I decided against changing anything except for a somewhat offensive name of an album, since I realized that Facebook marks your changes as part of your status. I figured that it would look worst if she saw that I had rushed to change everything because of her.

And there it was, I became everything I ever criticized about Facebook in a blink of an eye. I realized just how important it is to make sure your Facebook isn't very offensive since employers won't need to crack into your profile, they will most likely just simply ask you for your contact information.

Last night changed my Facebook outlook for life, I started un- tagging my drunk pictures and started thinking about responsible things to say about myself, while I am against the idea of detailing yourself by your likes and dislikes as people are tempted to stereotype you, I realized that sometimes people need to be able to simplify their understanding of you in order for them to give you a chance.

Activism will prevail...in one form or another

The days of the physical movements may be slowly coming to an end as entities like the World Trade Organization are making more intelligent choices with regards to locations for their large summits (for example, the 2003 WTO Summit in Cancun Mexico) which has made it increasingly more difficult for activists from around the world to attend as protesters. Aside from their rigid access points, policing efforts have become more violent and oppressive towards peaceful movements, perpetuating unnecessary violence and abusing human rights while governments turn blind eyes.

While physical actions seem to be suffering, Internet activism has since become stronger and more imminent- allowing activism to shift ranks and take on a more connected global presence, therefore making activism especially anti- corporate globalization more relevant than ever before as groups of people from Canada to Africa, France to Brazil are able to unite through networks and increase their political weight. Not only has the World Wide Web allowed people to find others who share like-minded ideas, but it has destroyed the hierarchy within activist communities by leveling off the space of activists to speak, whether it be the 80 year- old anti- war grandmother or 26 year- old anti- corporate Globalizer, they both have the same amount of power when introduced through the Internet as image, persona and to a certain degree reputation are stripped away, leaving only the bare message that fulfills a grassroots cause.

Not only has the Internet provided a forum to people from around the world but it has also helped coalitions find one another to unite, as witnessed in the 2003 international the anti-war protests grew into millions of people as sub-groups of activists were able to find one another and fight for a single inclusive cause.

Actions will always exist, it is their message that may continue to lose momentum as media coverage is rarely forgiving of them, determined to portray them in the worst possible light. But with the Internet, actions will start to move forward by promoting independent media organizations like Indymedia, who are able to offer unbiased coverage of actions and by promoting an indiscriminate environment to anyone interested in the issues at hand . While actions are usually held with the right ideals in mind, not everyone feels comfortable partaking in public spectacles, the Internet provides everyone with a right to as much anonymity as they feel necessary.