Age of TMI

Keeping up with my post-a-day promise ... and with a busy day this one's coming early.

Today, I'm tackling Twitter.

Yes, I tweet.

And, yes, I see the value in it, both as a a way for organizations to market themselves, and as a way to keep in touch.

I think it has some other pretty cool uses.

Recently, I followed a Bruce Springsteen concert as it unfolded, when a concert-goer "tweeted" every song as it came up.

Pretty fun, right?

But, there's a down side to all of this.

TMI. Especially on the "personal" level.

I'm not sure I really want to know, or care to know, when some people are getting out of bed, what they're having for breakfast, what they're seeing when they open their eyes, or every movement they make.

In fact, I actually considered, as a joke, taking this to the extreme.

My idea, post a tweet every time I move. Literally. Tweet as I walk from my living room to the office. From there to my kitchen. From there to my bedroom.

Or, I could just post longitude and latitude and let people figure out the rest.

It's not that some stuff isn't fun to read, it's just that I really wonder whether I need to know EVERYTHING that's happening in someone's life.

It all comes back to an old Dennis Miller joke I remember hearing, when home video cameras were first hitting the market.

Miller quipped that he thought people should have to prove their lives are interesting enough to be taped before being allowed to purchase one.

I kind of feel the same way about personal tweets. Is your life REALLY interesting enough for me to learn of your EVERY move?

In fact, I see some people who scream bloody murder when Twitter goes down even for a short while.

I like to think that I could survive without a phone, TV, computer, Twitter, Facebook, etc., if any of them should be removed for a small period of time.

That's when I go outside. Read a book. Fiddle around with a hobby. Without tweeting about it.

So, before you consider that brain implant that will upload your thoughts directly to Twitter ... ask yourself ... "is this really necessary?"

PS ... 2 other quick Twitter rants.

1. If you're going to tweet a lot, please spell correctly. I'm now to the point where I'm not ashamed to correct you.

2. Please, don't try to send too many tweets to celebrities (unless they ask for them) ... otherwise, you just look desperate (and a little stalkerish).