I know that Twitter is "the best thing ever" right now, and I even see that it may be valuable in certain, fairly limited, circumstances. But during the U.S. Presidential debate tonight, it struck me that the "Twitter phenomenon" may not necessarily be a positive development.
It seems to me that it is another way to condition us to "sound byte" politics. It is impossible, within the confines of Twitter, to make any kind of substantive argument for or against any policy or statement. It may be fine for pithy observations, but it is completely useless for substantive discussion of issues as important as those involved in this Presidential Campaign.
That, in and of itself, isn't a problem, except I worry that, as seems to be a trend in this country, people will begin to rely on services like Twitter for actual information, when it is not what they were designed to do.
And that, as a continuing trend, is dangerous to our republic.
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