'The Twitter Trap'

Bill Keller is the editor of The New York Times. When he speaks or writes -- even if it's to toss off an impish tweet -- people take notice.

Today in the Times' Sunday magazine (and four days earlier on the web), Keller came out with what I thought was a very sharp, insightful piece on the corrosive effect that Twitter (and other social media) has on our brains ("The Twitter Trap").
 
Just as the pocket calculator diminished our math skills, and GPS devices messed with our sense of direction,  Keller argues, so too is Twitter eroding our attention span.

Sending a single tweet requires thinking in 140-character bursts. Is that really a good thing? I suppose some people can convey wit, outrage ... or whatever ... in such a tight format. I also recognize that Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have been indispensable tools to journalists and ordinary citizens who've been active in the Arab Spring and other pro-democracy movements around the world.

Yet I agree with Keller when he wonders if the new technologies may be eroding our essentially human characteristics -- "our ability to reflect, our pursuit of meaning, genuine empathy, a sense of community connected by something deeper than snark or political affinity."

The most obvious drawback of social media is that they are aggressive distractions. Unlike the virtual fireplace or that nesting pair of red-tailed hawks we have been live-streaming on nytimes.com, Twitter is not just an ambient presence. It demands attention and response. It is the enemy of contemplation. Every time my TweetDeck shoots a new tweet to my desktop, I experience a little dopamine spritz that takes me away from . . . from . . . wait, what was I saying? 

My mistrust of social media is intensified by the ephemeral nature of these communications. They are the epitome of in-one-ear-and-out-the-other, which was my mother’s trope for a failure to connect. 

I went to the comments section following Keller's article and was struck by the number of well thought-out responses, both agreeing and disagreeing with him on the utility and value of Twitter and other social media. Then I went to Google and the first piece of reaction ("NYT editor Bill Keller on 'The Twitter Trap' ") and was slapped in the face by the very kind of snark I've come to detest.

One commenter calls him "a trolling bully." Another asks, "Was this guy in charge of the paywall decision? Print media makes you old and stupid." And someone else writes, "I really don't think Twitter is what made Bill stupid."

I can appreciate the connections ou can make on Facebook, as well as the news tips you can glean from Twitter, but I think our use of these tools comes down to a matter of balance. You can overdo anything -- whether it's watching TV, talking or texting with your smartphone or spending time on your computer. If we're smart enough to recognize Twitter as a time-sucking drain on the brain, we should also be smart enough to step away from it more often than not.


Illustration by James Joyce