Now that Twitter is all the rage in the media, or rather Twitter-bashing is all the rage, I can see that over the months I have started to understand it, to the extent that I find it blindingly obvious that much of the coverage is ridiculous, immature and downright inaccurate (no surprise).

Being considered by many commentators as just ‘the latest internet craze’ it is ripe for those commentators to start picking. The internet is evil, it’s full of porn, nazis and paedophiles. It makes our children spend their lives in a sedentary activity, forces them to eat junk food and ruins their health. Oh and it causes cancer. Twitter is on the internet. QED.

Mainstream media organisations have one job, and only one job: selling themselves. By which I mean gaining, keeping and growing their audience; everything else is incidental. Aside from the issue of social media making mainstream media redundant (discuss…), headlines like “Twitter: just another way of talking to people” would not sell many newspapers. There needs to be scandal, depravity, danger &c. And of course there is, because Twitter is just another forum, populated by human beings. So there’s bound to be some of the above. Not much, but some, somewhere, though I haven’t found it yet (of course I’ve not looked ). It’s the old ‘holding a mirror up to society’ thing.

We should forget about arguments over whether it’s any good or not, whether it has any value, whether it’s dangerous or useful. It just is. The point is that it’s a tool, facilitating communication, so we have to decide as individuals whether or not we want to join in.

As a tool it works pretty well. It has had its problems – growing pains you might say – but it does pretty much what it says on the tin. Being like an internet version of SMS, the messages are short, snappy, cleverly crafted (sometimes) and to the point (sometimes). The premise is “What are you doing?” so I assume the main requirement must be speed, in the sense of immediacy. Whatever is posted must be instantly available to all who wish to see it. In my experience, it delivers.

As for the content, that’s up to the users. It has nothing to do with the system. If you say that Twitter is full of rubbish, what you are really saying is that its users are full of rubbish – and I would respectfully suggest that you haven’t seen the output of all 6 million+ users. I haven’t seen the output of all 6 million+ users either, but I’ve seen some of it and I’d bet there are people talking about just about any topic you can think of. So there’s rubbish, inanity, egotism and narcissism of course, and I’ve read that there may even be some imaginative souls using it for sexual shenanigans. Then there’s friendly, helpful, advisory and supportive stuff, intellectual conversation and even a bit of tech talk. So as I said, just like any social forum anywhere, real or virtual.

One of the really interesting parts is the way the system can interact with other systems. For example, when I ‘tweet’, the message automatically appears here on my blog and on my Facebook page. This is a small example of how everything can (and will eventually) be interconnected. Makes me think of Dirk Gently and “the fundamental interconnectedness of everything” but that’s for another day.

On a personal note, I’m not keen on some of the “look how big mine is…” stuff that buzzes around the periphery. It’s usually men (really?) and relates to how often you tweet, how many followers you have, how many times your posts are ‘retweeted’ (re-broadcast with attribution) and so on. And why do people have to say ‘good morning’ and ‘good night’? But I’m getting old, so lots of stuff annoys me now.

If you don’t like it, don’t use it. If you do like it, use it in whatever way suits you. But if all you can do is criticise it, take a good look in the mirror.

I decided to watch both versions of episode 1 so that I could see how much had been added in the XL edit, but from now on I shall stick to the longer version. Not only was there more of the playful banter, there was also more substantive content. I was particularly interested in the proclivity of German authorities for collecting underwear. These collections apparently make up a ‘smells database’ of possible dissidents and undesirables, and hence I assume we are talking about dirty underwear. Fascinating. I wonder how many applications there are for the post of curator.

It makes me wonder what the future holds for the regular ‘half-hour’ show? I would happily sit through an hour long version of shows like QI and HIGNFY, and it seems there is plenty of material to stretch them. Perhaps the ’40 minute’ version will become the norm, as portions have grown in so many areas of life, unless the schedulers deem it impractical.

As I grow older I find less and less tv appeals to me, so welcome back to a quality show.

me in my work clothes

The temperature is plummeting again: 0.7C outside the window; a balmy 10C in the office. Last night’s ice didn’t melt during the day. Poor chickens, hope they make it through the night.

Here’s me at my desk, showing off my new corporate uniform!

The cold, clear, crisp air and the crunch of frozen grass underfoot is rather pleasant, at least as a novelty. I hope it doesn’t stay cold for too long though, especially as it seems that our mains water pipe has frozen!

This preamble is, of course, by way of introducing the subject of new year resolutions. Not that I really hold with the concept. It’s all a bit arbitrary really and I’m quite capable of putting myself under unnecessary pressure at any time of year, thank you very much. If pushed I will, likely as not, claim to have resolved to be even more lazy, greedy, naughty &c.

This year, however, may be different. No, really. Hear me out.

It’s likely to be an odd year for many of us, thanks to the bad behaviour of all those greedy bankers and stupid politicians (nothing to do with our own greed and consumption). Many jobs will be lost, companies will close or take the opportunity for some serious pruning, and governments will have to cut back in all sorts of areas as well as raising billions to keep essential services running. We know this, it’s not news.

Perhaps this change of circumstances is an opportunity to reflect on our lives and lifestyles. A time when we may as well bite the bullet, take control, try to be masters of our own destiny. OK, that last bit sounds ridiculous – I’m in danger of drifting into some kind of meaningless, clichéd, buzzword-laden oration, like so many in business and politics over the last few years. Forgive me.

What I mean to say is that 2009 will probably be different in many ways from the previous several years, which makes me feel that I should at least try to change myself for the better. We’re only 5 days into the new year so it’s possible I could be subconsciously surfing the wave of euphoria so often generated on January 1. I may feel quite different next week.

Nevertheless, it is my intention this year to focus on two principles: less reading, more writing; less thinking, more doing. I will have my list of specific goals, but these are mainly just things that have to be done at some point anyway. The (intended) difference this year is that I will achieve more. I will. Really. I will vanquish (or at least damage) the inner cynic. And why not? If I can stop smoking after more than 3 decades of weed-worship, a few other changes shouldn’t be too difficult.

There we are. The single step that starts my new journey. Thank you for humouring me, and watch this space!