Alex Massie Alex Massie

In Defence of Twittering

Unlike Clive, I thought Rachel Sylvester’s article on Twitter one of the most confused pieces I’ve read all year. On the one hand she wanted to say smething about Twitter, on the other she bemoaned the fact that nobody trusts politicians. Unfortunately she tried to link these two things in a single column and pretend there was some kind of relationship between them. Which is a shame since this is palpable nonsense. Ms Slvester certainly failed to establish any such link.

This paragraph was surely a mistake:

Twitter is reality TV without the pictures. There is a combination of neurosis and narcissism involved. The psychologist Oliver James has said: “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.”

Isn’t “reality TV without the pictures” radio? Who knows? Anyway it has nothing to do with Twitter.

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