Debate Sets Twitter Record

Social media meltdown? Wednesday night’s debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney generated10.3 million tweets in 90 minutes, Twitter reports, setting a political-event record. (The most tweeted moment was not attributed to Obama, Romney, or even Big Bird, but moderator Jim Lehrer’s “let’s not” quip.) But the surge in insta-punditry in 140 characters or less is overwhelming a large number of politicos who find the feverish tweeting unwieldy to sift through and largely unhelpful. “My Twitter feed is like the Tower of Terror of social media,” wrote The Huffington Post’s Eliot Nelson. Other commentators, like The Atlantic’s James Fallows swore off Twitter altogether during the debate, anticipating the onslaught.