Twitter: Symbol of Poverty?

This morning, I tuned in to an early morning newscast. It’s nice to know what’s going on around the globe. There’s the US led boycott of the U.N. anti-racism conference; a former head of the CIA slammed President Obama for releasing four Bush-era memos; and sadly, 4 kids died when their intoxicated father veered into a Houston bayou.

Then there is this race between CNN and Ashton Kutcher on Twitter. As the whole world knows by now, Kutcher won. Amongst all news-worthy stories out there, why would this CNN vs. Kutcher feud become such a newsmaker? And it is just about getting 1,000,000 followers in Twitter!

Twitter is the micro-blogging service that lets you post and read fragmentary communications at high speed. You subscribe to the tweets of a bunch of people and they will follow you as well. Internet marketing experts Jack Humphrey and Diane Corriette value Twitter as an important tool in gaining traffic for blogs, websites and products etc. And it seems to be true because corporations, institutions and public-relations firms now tweet like maniacs.

For some Twitter “can make you immoral” or "Twitter and Facebook could harm moral values” . What struck me most is this statement from Bruce Sterling: the clearest symbol of poverty is dependence on “connections” like the Internet, Skype and texting.

Aside from the regular SMS typed through our cellphones (which I and 500 million people love to do), Twitter is somewhat similar to that wherein you are only allowed to type in 150 characters per tweet. So, if the cyberpunk writer’s claim is true, all Twitter users can be considered poor! Oprah Winfrey joined Twitter only last week. But I don’t think anyone can describe Oprah  as part of the impoverished class.

And how many forex traders have their own twitter accounts? Traders can tweet easily about currency pairs, market conditions, trading platforms etc. People tend to keep in touch because its part of human nature. We communicate our thoughts and emotions through various means and currently, its Twitter and all other forms of social media that help us broadcast what we “the ordinary people” wanted to say.

So, will I continue using Twitter? Yes. In fact this morning, I just followed Oprah. Three weeks before, I followed Ashton Kutcher as well. I followed several forex traders, hobbyists, bloggers, journalists and John Meyer. For now, I only have 140 followers because I don’t exactly have a celebrity’s popularity. But nevertheless, I get to say what I want, when I want it…all thanks to Twitter.