STOP TWITTERING, WORM! YOU ARE NOT THE TEXT OF GOD

Although I have used Facebook, both for its limited social interaction, to sell my books, music, and public appearances, and just simply to remind the world that I am still alive and out here, I have never so much as approached Twitter. I don’t know if this stands me in bad stead for the following remarks, but I figure, having started, I might as well go on. Back when Twitter was first drawn to my attention, I decided far too much of my online time was devoted to keeping this blog alive and functioning, and also couldn’t see how I could write within a format where I was limited to bites of 140 characters. I had already evolved a somewhat condensed writing style for Doc40, but, goddamn it, this was short attention span written even shorter, and surely must be detrimental to the common literacy. It also struck me as a exercise in disturbing cyber-narcissism.

For a very brief few moments I idly toyed with the idea of creating some kind of Burroughs-style cut-up work of fiction that could be Twittered out into the ether, but quickly abandoned it as impractical and far too time consuming. Then, just a few days ago, I learned on Facebook about a Twitter novel of mass multiple authorship. For a moment or so, I toyed with the idea of participating, but rejected it for much the same reasons as the cut-up idea.

One other thing also bothered me, although my lack of experience may be making me a victim of a misconception. Surely once you are connected to a Twitter source (a Twit?), aren’t you hooked to a constant commentary, dangerously like an electronic approximation of the bicameral mind described by Julian James in his 1976 book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind? Jaynes proposed that human brains existed in a bicameral state until as recently as 3000 years ago, and – as described by Wikipedia – “ancient people in the bicameral state would experience the world in a manner that has similarities to that of a modern-day schizophrenic. Rather than making conscious evaluations in novel or unexpected situations, the person would hallucinate a voice or "god" giving admonitory advice or commands, and obey these voices without question; one would not be at all conscious of one's own thought processes per se.”

Thus it would seem, should I take up Twittering, I would be a virtual approximation of the Text of God, and not even my egomania can elevate me to pantheon level. But maybe that’s why politicians and advertizes, who lack such reservations, are so keen on Twitter.

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