THE NAKED CITY – with Miss Death, Jay Katz and Coffin Ed
OH FOR THE TWITTER FREE ZONE!
It’s been likened to the bubonic plague of the 21st century and like its fellow contagant Facebook, there are signs that Twitter is already causing social upheaval and invading spaces previously considered sacrosanct.
Take the ABC’s popular Q&A which bills itself as an interactive public affairs program and encourages viewer questions via email and Skype. The show has recently introduced Twitter comments from viewers which run like subtitles underneath the ongoing debate. Regardless of the fact that most are fairly dumb and uninspired (and obviously screened by the producers), they are also darn annoying. What next – the live studio audience encouraged to write placards and flash them to show their dissent!
As strange as it may seem there are still a few amongst us who choose never to sign up for Facebook or Tweet or Twit or Twat away with the banalities of everyday life especially when there are so many other interesting pursuits to embrace. The problem with Twitter is that it’s set to become invasive, whether you like it not and as the technology is exploited it could well become the unwanted spam of social discourse.
If Q&A can do it then expect a myriad of other TV programs to encourage a barrage of viewer solicited Tweets, running continuously with everything from Hey Hey it’s Saturday to the latest Shamwow infomercial. The big losers here will the hearing impaired whose subtitles will soon disappear to make way for the avalanche of mindless tweets. And you better brush up on your foreign language skills as SBS abandons all subtitling in favour of non stop Twitter.
There’s nothing more annoying than going to the cinema and be sitting adjacent to some loudmouth who offers a running commentary throughout the movie. Now the ruthless Twitter revolution will afford them the opportunity to have their mindless observations run along the bottom of the screen, even giving away the ending if they have seen the film before.
Laugh if you like but already a prototype has been designed whereby Twitterers can don small LED screens, worn on a cap or as part of a t-shirt, and constantly display their ever changing thoughts to all and sundry. In an Orwellian society this would almost certainly become compulsory – in Australia we wait and see!
Let’s hope that the minority finally fight back, demanding Twitter free zones and TV sets that automatically filter out any Tweets. Maybe a law could be passed that if all you have to say is self glorifying and indulgent, then it’s best kept to yourself.
