Shorter Mark McKinnon - hey you kids, get offa my lawn.

So true, it's sad. I'm 18 and my generation is fully immersed in the demise of meaningful communication. We are the kings of instant communication, but get most of us into a real life, face to face, conversation about something real and be prepared for awkward silences galore. We just don't know how to have a legitimate, lengthy conversation, instead we drag the same exchange over weeks of back and forth comments or posts on facebook or myspace. Something that could've taken only a few minutes to an hour and benefited both parties now takes days or weeks and is reduced to antiseptic little blurbs on a computer screen.

"Don't just fall in love with the tool. Fall back in love with having real conversations."

You see it as a tool because you haven't looked deeply into it to see the kind of value it adds. Twitter can be addictive and a big time-suck, but only if people let themselves become addicted. Otherwise, it is a valuable way to connect - with some of people you represent, dare I add - and can really open doors professionally and personally. Not only that, it's a source of news, gossip and other information.

We're not talking about the signifier here, we're talking about the sign.

"I've decided to spend that time on the handful of people I really care about. I write them real letters."

I use a quill, and send the letter via carrier pigeon. Also, I've recently started using the telegraph again.

Amazingly got this off of a tweet from Ana Marie Cox.

You are right more friends, doesn't mean more love. It only means more work and more effort needed to build those relationships. Unfortunately that comes with a cost to those you already have relationships with. But to me that doesn't mean you throw in the towel. You just put fences up to control the effort you make in this area and get that there's only so much communicating one can do.

You actually have to have something to share yourself for a conversation or relationship to be valuable. Too many don't get that. They shout at the top of their lungs and create an echo chamber. They have nothing to share and the conversation turns in to a noise that drowns out what might otherwise be a valuable conduit of information.

I'd encourage you to reconsider. There are those that want to hear your thoughts and getting them in twitter or facebook may be easier than coming to "The Beast". Learn how to "Block", make some time for thoughtful meditation, Keep connecting, keep trying and know that sometimes you kiss 100 frogs to find 1 prince. But finding the prince is what life is about (at least for me)

You miss the points. Several points, actually.

1. These networks are not about maintaining contact with your close friends, no matter WHAT facebook calls your contacts: it's about maintaining contact with your community. Like the people in your neighborhood that you know well only enough to trick-or-treat and sell girlscout cookies to, these are people you send a low-grade signal out to, to maintain community.

Everyone has a community. Lance Armstrong's community is bigger than mine - that's fine; Cancer is bigger than me, too. That doesn't mean my personal community isn't useful and valuable to me, based on the scope of things I accomplish with it.

2. Twitter is a bit of waste if what you're doing with it is simply saying "This is what I just did." It's banal and pointless at that level. Use it for "this is what I'm thinking" or "this is something you should know about", and it's telepathy of the best kind.

Amen!

ah finally someone willing to not drink the koolaid. The other week I went on vacation and did not take my computer. I did not answer email, blog, twitter, facebook. I simply spent time with my friends. Guess what: life is good in the real world.

hours on facebook and twitter? really? where do you find time to go to the nickelodeon? or ride your velociped to the polo grounds? i hear smiling mickey welch is tops in the league. also, when will your section of the bible be done? matt, luke and john all got their stuff in on time...

I still love twitter, but I agree with most of this - I do think it jumped the shark this week and I don't think it's any substitution for real life relationships. But I still think it's incredibly useful, and I don't think it's impossible to form good relationships there by meeting new people you may not otherwise have the opportunity to meet.

I'm not in a position where I get to meet a wide varitey of folks, so I appreciate what I get to see there - even if it's just a one-sided exposure to other ideas. I think there are some media personalities (beyond Ana Marie) who are managing to make it something more than an impersonal promotion tool.

But it's silly to obsess about how many followers you have or whatever, just for the sheer number of followers you have, if you have no idea whether or not those people are adding you because they think you're interesting or because they're serial adders. If you're looking for something other than just an echo chamber for your thoughts, quality always > quanity, in terms of face-to-face relationships and on-line relationships.

Twitter is for egomaniacs who crave attention and think what they have to say should be seen by EVERYONE!

Interesting thought. I think the line is somewhere in between. Users can leverage social networks to keep tabs on a larger cadre of people, and still retain and even enhance more intimate friendships. I love that I can know where long-lost people are and what they are up to - sometimes providing an opportunity / reason to get back in touch.

Check this article out about how people are still maintaining relationships with a small group of people, despite having 100 "friends" in Facebook: http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/02/27/facebooks-in-house-sociologist-sha res-stats-on-users-social-behavior/

This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.

Perhaps it is the addiction part that keeps Mr. McKinnon from wanting to use it?

McKinnon isn't interested in any medium that he can't manipulate or control and he isn't keen on anything he can't spin or where PR agents can't frame the message. Bottom up communications is anathema to the spin-Nazi as we like to call him.

I am waiting for the next McKinnon column in which he praises sunshine.
Seriously - a jar of beans to remind us of our mortality...an 'eating out and remodeling the bathroom' cure for our ecomony...and now a soapbox plea to not let technology take over our lives.
I just wish Tina Brown or someone in charge would explain why this chief Bush apologist has been annointed as a voice of cultural moralism.
Some lines are snorted, some are distorted. .

Leary7
"Some lines are snorted, some are distorted."

Those are the ones Mcat is addicted to.

Cheif Bush apologist and former cocaine dealer, is the exact title.

Twitter is not for everyone. You don't have to like Twitter. You don't have to be "hip". Just don't mock those who do use it.

I hate country music but I don't care that other people love it. Try not to succumb to peer pressure and turn bitter & judgmental.

Online communication has become the coke of the 00's.

funny- would have never found this article if I hadn't seen it on twitter.

cravelloc

"Online communication has become the coke of the 00's."

Gee, you'd think that Mark would be all over that?

i both agree and disagree with your article. on the one hand, putting time into ones friends and relationships is extremely important. im constantly tweaking and weeding out relationships with people that have either just expired (aka, we grew apart) or who were mere acquaintances who despite my best efforts never became fully fledged friends, or those whom i have no interest in developing our relationship further.

however, im not going to get all protectionist about my relationships and refuse to make new friends. im very diligent about turning acquaintances into friendships. not all, but with those with whom i see the potential for a great friendship.

that said, i do love to tweet. and it is addicting. but i dont just tweet "noise" like "im drinking a cup of tea". that is a colossal waste of time. but through tweeting i not only receive links to interesting articles - which is never a bad thing, i not only connect with people who share similar interests with me, but i get to participate in an ongoing discussion/debate about various topics. i get to hear all sorts of viewpoints, which serves to broaden my perspective and yes, i cultivate relationships. some which may be good for me career wise, and some who are good for me just because they are awesome people.

like all social media tools, it has its good points and its bad points, but twitter, as in everything in life is all about what you make out of it.

Twitter? I suppose I just don't understand what's interesting in reading everyone's every little thought. Boring.

Twitter is not just another social-networking site, nor is it just a medium to tell people what you're eating for lunch. It's a 21st century version of the traditional salon and it, and other micro-blogging platforms are revolutionizing the way humans communicate. Twitter has hardly jumped the shark; in fact, I doubt we've begun to see the level of its eventual impact. McKinnon's dismissal of a medium seems to indicate he's not thoroughly researched the subject, nor delved very deeply into the myriad ways Twitter can be used. He really does sound like someone decrying the use of the dangerous new-fangled iron horses.