A new force seems to be taking over the airwaves: Twitter!
I viewed three morning shows earlier this week and they all invited the audience to join their “Twitter” page throughout the show. Celebrities at the Oscars weren’t supposed to, but some were sneaking in the chance to Twitter. And Tuesday night, the nation saw members of both the House and Senate with Blackberries on, probably assuming they were texting friends or family. In actuality, most were doing something else. As ABC News reported in its Wednesday news shows, “Many congressman had their heads down: Twittering.”
Twittering is the latest social networking craze. It’s all very simple: create 140 character (or less) messages telling others what one is doing at the moment. It’s about self-promotion. It’s about networking.

One Congressman saw it as a good thing. “It’s a very good discipline,” he said, “forcing us to be pithy, short-winded and disciplined.” Wow, does it take technological limits to do that? Let’s put a 140 page limit on the national budget!
Twitter is one of the strongest examples we’ve seen of the new media, the overlap between genres. In this case, it’s television overlapping with text-nology. What will be next? Concert goers voting from the audience on which song they’d like the artist to sing? Movie-goers picking which pre-loaded ending they’d like to see? Wow, what if you could Twitter your spiritual questions to Joel Osteen while you’re watching his show. Then, of course, he’d have to answer them live! Media as we know it may be changing in a hurry. But I digress.
Technology is not only re-shaping our media. It is re-shaping our manners. It’s creating categories and integrations that are really starting to make me feel old. But it’s also called progress. I haven’t yet decided if that’s a good thing.