Oh God — who cares about Twitter, right? For something that only 6.9 percent of the global population use, it sure punches above its weight, hoo-ha wise. Barely a week goes by without some headline about a stupid online fight causing another problem. If it’s not someone being an asshole on it, it’s someone who’s being an asshole being banned from it; or someone who’s being an asshole being allowed back on to it, despite still being an asshole. Anyone who ever said that all humanity had to do to settle its differences was simply to “talk to each other” had never seen the average day on Twitter where someone posting a picture of their breakfast (“Yum, yum!”) can an hour later have caused a global Twitterstorm about the problematic history of toast.
On the other hand, it’s still amazing! There’s no precedent for a technology that allows anyone to post an idea, thought or picture that can become a global talking point by the end of the day. Twitter makes newspapers seem slow, television elite, politics old and most social situations dull. Plus most of the world’s most famous and influential people are on there, posting news, updates and opinions, 24/7, to followings larger than the population of many countries. Barack Obama has 133 million followers; Rihanna, 108 million. And this is why most people in journalism, media and politics are still on there. If you want to take the world’s temperature, your first and quickest port of call is to put your thermometer up Twitter’s bum.
