Twitterpocalypse: THE DEATH OF HUMAN CONNECTION?

It's great how you can talk to your friend's sister's cousin twice removed that is currently residing in Reykjavik, while in the comfort of your own home. However, texting a sibling who is five feet away to say that dinner is ready is really unnecessary. Virtual communication is so deeply ingrained in our social lives, that we send e-vites instead of physically inviting people, and even resort to ending relationships over the Internet. Whatever happened to face-to-face interaction without the aid of a cell phone or computer?

Instead of finding and meeting new friends, we rely on social networking to do the job (sometimes we find more than friends). Instead of hanging out at parties and physically talking to people, we're glued to our cell phones texting other friends and not making new ones. It's as if seeing people and hearing voices have become obsolete. The essence of human emotion is pixelated on tiny screens, compressed in five words or less if not abbreviated with three letter acronyms and sideways faces.

The problem with this technology is that there is a chance of misunderstanding; the words we type on screens might not accurately convey our thoughts and emotions. Who is to say that the recipient of a message may not construe words together to get the wrong idea, resulting in adverse effects than intended.

The latest tech craze and the next step in the extinction of physical communication is that little blue and white bird. The propagator of mostly useless information; it bombards us with the mundane thoughts of anybody at any waking hour of the day. Twitter.

It is the newest trend in social networking that has picked up quite a number of users including senators (shame on them for twittering during work). Essentially, Twitter is centered on whatever the user is doing or thinking at that point in time. In other words, bragging about how mundane one's life is and a constant self-affirmation. Pointless posts (called tweets) such as "Oh, I just discovered how awesome pickles are…" or "Just got to work… sitting down in my cubicle" further accentuate what the society has become — bite-sized pieces of human filled with narcissism and air.

It seems as if reading tweets and following people on Twitter is a better form of communication than actually talk to someone. Has anyone ever stopped to think that if you really cared about what your friends were doing and thinking, you should see them and talk to them? This shouting in the dark and hoping that someone is listening is not going to work.

Ready Set Merry-go