Yes, I think I can finally say it. I’m addicted to Twitter. Why you might ask? Who cares about what some random bod had for breakfast? Let me tell you, Twitter is much more powerful than that. And also a whole lot more banal. It depends on what hashtag you happen to be sitting on/in. You want banal, then go sit in #auspol. The burrow inhabited by some of the most mindless conservative apologists it’s been my misfortune to have come across. If you want powerful, go sit in any hashtag which derives from an ABC radio or television program dealing with current affairs. #qanda, #insiders, #futuretense to name just a couple.
There is a problem with Twitter, however. Twitter is limited to 140 characters in total, inclusive of user addresses – @endeesea – and in some respects as I understand the medium, hashtags themselves, so in reality, you have maybe 100 characters in which to make a statement or drive a point home. Much less of you’re linking to a URL, shortened or otherwise.
I’m a huge fan of using technology to express opinions, communicate socially, engage other opinions and generally chew the fat on matter which effect all of us. To that end, I’m trying to get the denizens of #auspol to get into an environment where an 80-90 character twitter-bite proves to be as concealing as the emperors new clothes.. To that end, I’ve created an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channel, or room, called #auspol, on the all-Australian server network, induced_dot_net. The random server being irc.induced.net, the connecting port 6667.
So, if you’re an Aussie, and you happen to read this, try somewhere that’s more generous and makes more sense than Twitter for your social engagement.