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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009
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 OPINION 
5

'Tragic Oversharing' Turns Us Into Tweet Twits

Are we at risk of losing normal social skills?

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(Newser) – In the “Age of Oversharing,” Twitter is king—and that could be a bad sign for society, Meghan Daum writes in the Los Angeles Times. If Twitter were human, it would be the kind of person we'd avoid at parties, Daum writes: “emotionally unstable,” a “tragic oversharer” who’d make us feel “kind of gross because the friendship is unearned and the confidence is unjustified.” Yet instead of avoiding the phenomenon, we’re embracing it.

“It’s worth wondering how much of this ‘connecting’ is simply hastening the erosion of our already compromised interpersonal skills,” Daum writes. “Are we tweeting because we truly want to communicate with a select group of true friends, or because typing has replaced talking and indiscretion has been stripped of all negative connotations?”

This image provided by CNN shows Ashton Kutcher, left, and Sean Combs during Larry King's interview with them about Twitter.
This image provided by CNN shows Ashton Kutcher, left, and Sean Combs during Larry King's interview with them about Twitter.   (AP Photo/CNN Larry King Live)
This image provided by CNN shows Larry King interviewing Ashton Kutcher about their recent Twitter challenge.
This image provided by CNN shows Larry King interviewing Ashton Kutcher about their recent Twitter challenge.   (AP Photo/CNN Larry King Live)
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Are most Twitter posts merely inane, or do they carry the faint whiff of the insane? - Meghan Daum

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5 comments
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Snarfeh
Apr 21, 09 8:31 PM CDT
I think it should be called twitting, not tweeting. After all, the site is named twitter. And twit is both a noun and a verb, as in, "That twit wants me to twit him." Only twits twit. Reply
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Mad
Apr 21, 09 10:08 PM CDT
"Only twits twit" - Amen, Sister!
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sadtimes
Apr 21, 09 9:00 PM CDT
Awesome comment...I think the article has some credence. I use facebook, but twitter is just taking the most useless, annoying, part of facebook and creating a social network out of it. Reply
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Hip
Apr 21, 09 9:05 PM CDT
I agree 100% (but wouldn't have the guts to say that face to face...I'm too shy). Reply
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DarkFrancis
Apr 22, 09 1:13 AM CDT
Twit aside, I wonder how much Kutcher pays for that haircut? It looks like a puddin' bowl job. Reply
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