The backlash is here. Compared to many I’m a late joiner of Twitter, so I could easily be lumped into the unwashed mass of people that pushed Twitter from “cool” to the “oh shit my grandma is on here” category. I don’t think it’s going anywhere, and I imagine that in a few years we’ll reminisce about the olden days of Twitter the way we do about once really cool things like email or newsgroups. Or chat for that matter.*
Anyway, I’ll probably talk shit about Twitter for awhile, mostly because everyone else is. It’s only appropriate given that bandwagon hopping turned it uncool in the first place. After that it’ll be integrated into everything and I won’t even think about it. What really worries me is what happens when all of my online and offline identities somehow merge into one.** Maybe that’s the next killer app, something to manage all of our ridiculous online personae.
* There was a period of time during which I printed and saved all of my chats. This might make an interesting ongoing feature, Banal Chats from my Past.
** People talk about the Singularity, maybe that’s what will happen. Identity boundaries cease to exist. I implode under the gravity of my cognitive dissonance.
I like that term: “identity boundaries”, because I have started to feel pretty uneasy about it lately. My dad is @ messaging my friends on Twitter, my boss reads my blog, and my 80 year old great aunt is on Facebook. It’s freaking me out. Where can I drop my F-bombs now?!
I look forward to the banal chats feature.
I feel you. Now that I’m ok with WordPress I’m considering grabbing a new domain and building something new and disconnected from the, uh, real me. I half expect there will eventually be DSM entries just for internet related anxieties. I just envisioned a couple’s counselor pouring over years of passive-aggressive facebook status postings…