Prague News

I hate Twitter. And Tweets. Twitpix is lame. Twitter is like being in a tiny room full of annoying people who are all vying for your undivided attention. I feel like my shirt sleeve is constantly being tugged, or like a little yappy dog is nipping at my heels. I feel like I just walked into a cloud of gnats. I just don’t get Twitter. What is the point? Is it just to be witty? Is it because you REALLY need people to know what you are doing every second of the day?

* “Off to the bathroom!”

* “What should I have for dinner tonight?”

* “TRAFFIC!”

If you really can’t decide what to make for dinner without consulting your 500 closest friends, then buddy – you have bigger problems.

I blame Twitter (and the Internet in general) for the growing trend of short attention spans. For example, I was on another tool for time-suckage – FACEBOOK – the other day and saw this: A friend had posted a funny video that was a total of 3:23 seconds long. Underneath the video someone wrote, “Dude, I stopped watching after 30 seconds. When does it get funny?” Seriously. THREE MINUTES. A person today cannot wait even three minutes for something. If an article or blog post is too long, people don’t want to read it. In colleges today, students need “multi-media stimulus” in order to pay attention. People will stop reading a book after about 10 pages if they don’t feel “grabbed”. If information is not gathered quickly, then it is deemed not worth having.

My challenge to you, dear readers is this. Pick a day this week. Got it? Good. Now, on this day you are to do the following: Do not take your ipod (or whatever portable listening device you have) with you anywhere. Leave it at home and spend on day just listening to the world around you. Next, use your phone ONLY for calls and/or texts – nothing else. That means not checking your FB page, emails or Twitter when you are bored. That means not playing with iphone applications when your date is in the bathroom. That means getting comfortable with yourself and relearning patience.

I know that to some of you this seems impossible and uncomfortable. But, I think it will open your eyes just a little to the amount of time you spend wasting time. Now, I have to go delete my Twitter account.