Twat

“Twittering stems from a lack of identity. It’s a constant update of who you are, what you are, where you are. Nobody would Twitter if they had a strong sense of identity." From an excellent examination of the Twitter phenomenon in The Times Online.

The article posits that we tweet to 1] confirm we exist, 2] maintain our place in the forefront of others minds 3] hope the people we "follow" will provide us with a roadmap of where we should go, considering our collective total lack of direction/self-concept.

I have long pondered on what the point of personal micro-blogging is, i.e. Facebook status/Twitter. It is the real-life equivalent of nervous chatter, of the man who talks not for love of his voice, but for a confirmation that it is still there. He is performing the existential keys, wallet, phone check; he is getting stamped the parking validation of his soul. He is the hanger-on at the cocktail party who knows no one but you and he is constantly squeaking on at you regarding the state of his discomfort. Only it's the internet, so it's more like the entire neurotic contents of a packed Yankee Stadium spills out into your cocktail glass - ruining your buzz & wasting your whiskey - once every several nanoseconds.

The reason I'm not vehemently pro-Twitter stems not from my well-developed sense of identity (of which there is nill), but more because I am trying very hard not to be connected to people. That is to say, I am trying to feel more connected to myself so that I do not go padding about life feeling gratuitously aware of my surroundings.

Anyway, I have 2 Twitter accounts. One serves mostly as a link depository, so everyone will know in real-time what garbage I am currently ingesting (I will likely revert back to Tumblr as my primary source of existential validation). The other is also a chronicle of consumption - a tiny index of foods that time (or hemisphere) forgot. Tweet at me.