For a variety of reasons, I have lately joined twitter, and have spent much of my time with it trying to decide whether it is anything other than inane.  I think one of the things that rubs me the wrong way about it is that it demands spontanaeity. I have nothing against immediacy or spontanaiety, I just don’t want to associate those traits with writing.

It has been interesting trying to figure out what is going on with the whole phenomenon. It has forced me to start blogging (which is cool), which has in turn led me to discover two very different blogs, both of which I have really enjoyed reading.  One of them is written by an old friend – it’s very personal, very journal-like and really reflects her personality. The other is written by Wil Wheaton, who has become a really interesting, funny and successful writer. Wil (who played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek back in the eighties) writes about many things geek-related.

Between the two blogs, I am left wondering what the point of my own writing is… how personal do I want it to be? Compounding the issue is “who is going to be reading this?” Does it matter if my professional contacts learn that I spend more time reading reviews of board games than watching sports? Can I write about friends without their permission? 

All of these questions tie in to the tie-ins I’ve been creating online. Between myself and my workplace. Between facebook and twitter. All of these connections require me to think (way too much) about what I post where, when, and why.  I’m not sure I like that.

It’s all kind of fun, but I really find myself wondering if I’m not just killing my own attention span.

Finally, as someone who has always prided myself on brevity, sometimes trying to constrain my trademark sparkling wit to the absolute wall of 140 characters is frankly just a pain in the ass.