What is Twitter?

Twitter is referred to as a "microblogging" site. A blog is a site that allows users to post their thoughts on the web and accept comments from other users. In twitter, you set up a profile just like in other blogs but, twitter posts differ because their length is limited to 140 characters. Twitter posts are called "tweets."

People with twitter profiles can elect to follow you and read your posts as they occur. These posts are similar to short comments that appear in other blogs. People who read your blog and are interested in adding useful commentary usually do so in more than 140 characters. People with short comments normally say "See my website at - and include a link to their URL." Such comments don't contribute to your blog and are just another form of unwanted advertising. They are like the undesired promotional messages that clog modern email. This unwanted advertising, no matter where it occurs is called Spam. The "tweets" coming from Twitter take on the form of typical Spam messages. It seems strange to me that the same people that vigorously oppose Spam, embrace the very same thing disguised as a "tweet."

Twitter has added a new dimension to URL links being posted in "tweets." Since most URLs are quite long, to make them fit in 140 characters along with an explanatory message, a URL shortening service has to be used. Currently there are over 90 URL shortening services. TinyUrl.com, and Bit.ly,to name a few, are popular on Twitter. Bit.ly is the official URL shortening service for Twitter. It takes a long URL and turns it into the form bit.ly/xxxxx, where xxxxx represents a character code for the original URL. When someone clicks on the shortened URL link, the user first goes to bit.ly and then is redirected to the actual URL. But before redirecting, the information about the user who clicked on the link is saved. In this way merchandising trends about Twitter users can be tracked and participating companies could be more effective in their marketing efforts. Isn't there a word for such tracking? Spyware!

Besides, the privacy aspect, shortened URLs are a target for hackers. If they ever compromised a URL shortening service, anyone who clicks on a URL using that service could be sent to virus-laden site instead of where they wanted to go. Shortened URLs have numerous other security issues associated with them. See this Tech Republic article.

Useful Ideas and Twitter.

What can be expressed in 140 characters? Most thoughts of value cannot be stated in this form of communication. Most short forms of expression common to texting on cell phones and Twitter, are nothing more than gossip, Spam, and other useless chatter. Twitter is just another tool in the media's effort to suppress the individual, and create a population of people so superficial that they can easily accept the dictates of the leaders and marketers that pull their strings.

If you've ever tried to learn something new, you know that it takes a lot of time, effort, and concentration before you begin to see a glimmer of understanding. Twitter teaches you to gossip in short bursts of thought. Your attention span gets shorter. You need to concentrate on a subject long and hard before you can learn it. When you get brainwashed by texting and twittering, your ability to learn gets diminished.

The Rich and Powerful can use Twitter as Propaganda.

The people with most followers on Twitter were already well known before they joined Twitter. Famous people can twitter to spread their name and ideas. Politicians use this form of Spam to point to their sites and push their agendas. Companies trying to sell things can use the bit.ly site to report on how effective their marketing efforts are. Just as in other media cases, advertising money can buy followers. Twitter is not too different from television and other media, whose goal is to capture consumer's heart and mind for the sponsor.

Preparation for World Slavery.

If you look around you, in lot of cities you can see cameras everywhere, cameras to watch traffic as well as pedestrians. New cars are equipped with GPS tracking instrumentation. RFID devices track the items we purchase. Cellular technology is everywhere, WiFi and Wimax Networks wirelessly connect our computers and cell phones to the Internet. Governments are pushing for electronic Id cards.

In the years to come, if these technologies ever get co-ordinated and placed in the hands of our greed- driven political leaders, the world could see the rise of police states far worse than George Orwell's fictional "Oceania" ruthlessly ruled by "Big Brother." It is estimated that Stalin was responsible for the murder of 20 million people, and Hitler killed 11 million in German concentration camps. Neither of these dictators had access to high tech. Can you imagine how high the numbers would be, or how unbearable life would be under their rule, if they were using our current technology.

Aldous Huxley (author: Brave New World (1932)) has a famous quote that tells us what powerful leaders really want:

A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude. To make them love it is the task assigned, in present-day totalitarian states, to ministries of propaganda, newspaper editors and schoolteachers.

This is where sites like Twitter come in. If Twitter were a site designed to enhance you as an individual, it would not be embraced as it is by politicians and big corporations (the ones I call corporate aliens.) Instead, it wants to turn you into a superficial gossiper, and lessen your learning skills, so you would exuberantly cheer the ruling "Big Brother" and love your world of servitude.

Conclusion

Here are some reasons not to use twitter:

• Twitter is used as Spam, gossip, and useless chatter.
• Twitter consumes natural resources that can be put to better use.
• Meaningful ideas need more than 140 characters to express.
• Twitter compromises security and privacy when using popular URL shortening services.
• Following trends like Twitter lessens your individuality. Mediocrity is the characteristic of people who follow trends and have limited ideas of their own.
• Twitter shortens your attention span and makes meaningful learning harder.
• Important Politicians and Big Corporations embrace Twitter. The major characteristic of these members of society is insatiable greed and use of lies and propaganda to achieve their goals.
• Twitter is joining other media in a co-ordinated effort to ensure the popular acceptance of the coming "police state."
• The Internet consists of a large number of learning opportunities never before available to the general public: free books, videos, tutorials on any subject desired. Instead of taking advantage of these opportunities, why do we choose to propagate Spam?