Getting further entangled in the web

Sorry for the pun. I know the term 'web' hasn't been used since about 1997 (or the last mention of some cyber crime in the Daily Mail), but it's late. My concentration is slowly sinking (as is the plan to send me to sleep) but not to such a degree to stop me from joining the latest online trend.

Tonight I got me a Twitter. Fucking hell, a hillbilly with a lisp, I'm really missing writing at three o'clock in the morning aided by a bottle of wine or an eighth of green.

Where was I?

Oh yes, Twitter. I've heard it being mentioned quite a bit recently and what with being a total geek that has a tendency to get into things just as they stop being cool, I thought I'd get on it ahead of the rush. If I'm being honest about the degree of my geek claims, I went on it after reading something that Stephen Fry said on the BBC here.

It's been almost two years since I opened a Facebook account. My thirst for knowledge of my friends' activities and whereabouts vastly outweighs my need to get away from my computer screen and have a chat face to face with them. This seems to be the next big move in permanently gluing our faces to our computer screens or mobile handsets. By getting in now I can offset the (damn I hate to use it again, spiders should have got a copyright on that years ago, alas) web trendsetting against my awfully uncool @hotmail email addresses.

I haven't been on it long enough to tell what it's really like (what with having about nine contacts), but I think the idea is pretty cool. In 160 odd characters, you write what you're up to. It seems to be that simple. It also seems to be vaguely (exactly) similar to Facebook's status updates, which is my favourite bit of it. Meh, photos of your holidays, your favourite commodities, what school you went to, adverts coming at you from all angles... I could live without it. I'm pretty sure, I did for the first 23 years of my life. Obviously the old businesses have got in on the Twitter action (the second of third screen asks you if you would like to add any of these members: Britney Spears - No, Ryan Seacrest - No, Coca-Cola - No... for example), but at least they only have 160 characters to sell you their shit. That is, if you add them.

So I'm going to stare blankly at my screen awaiting news from eight mates, Stephen Fry and The Onion. I don't think I'd get that done in a room full of friends.