Just Because You Can, Doesn't Mean You Should

"I saw Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream at the deli. Wanted it. Sore throat would not be pleased, though."

That was me, at 11:27 p.m. on May 24, gazing longingly into the frozen-food aisle of my neighborhood's late-night convenience store. I'd seen a pint of the recently released Ben & Jerry's flavor, named after my personal political hero, for the first time. I love ice cream. But seasonal allergies had turned the back of my throat into a war zone, and a thick and creamy dessert with chunks of cone in it likely wouldn't help.

It was disappointing, and I wanted to make my disappointment known. So I took out my cell phone and texted the aforementioned thought to Twitter, the much-talked-about "microblogging" service that lets users tell the world anything and everything--as long as it's 140 characters or fewer.

For one, what is up with this obsession the Twitter generation has with expressing itself and monitoring each others' lives? I don't understand the need to spew out personal information and random thoughts to the world. And that's just what Twitter is designed for: to be a medium through which you can share stream-of-conscious babblings with your friends and with anyone who has time to lurk on the Web site and read inane musings of strangers.

Food seems to be a big theme on Twitter. Glancing at random twitters recently, I found one user who was "drinking beer and 'cooking' fish fingers.'" Another felt compelled to disclose "MUST BATHE." Another was "getting bored." Others took the time to write how late in the day it is and how much work/fill-in-the-blank they have left to do. Well, maybe if they didn't spend so much time, um, twittering, they wouldn't be rushed. But these are strangers and it's obvious why I wouldn't care what they had for lunch. What about my own friends? Actually, I don't care what they just ate, either.