To be honest, I have no idea what Twitter is all about and this scares me. I, like the rest of my generation, have grown up with technology and have understood and used it from a young age. We have grown up painfully embarrassed at older generations who just don’t get it – pecking at the keyboard with only their index fingers, showing honest amazement at the copy/paste function, and awkwardly signing themselves up for Facebook, still thinking it’s socially acceptable to repeatedly “poke” someone. I have felt superior to these tech-ignorant people for quite some time and I have enjoyed feeling so. Yet, at the ripe old age of twenty-three, this “Twitter” thing has me baffled. Is the internet passing me by? I mean that sucks. I’m not some technology idiot or something, I work on websites everyday. For money. This is terrifying.

So I may not understand Twitter… why people like it… what it does… But I do appreciate how culturally prominent it is and, though I have never ‘tweeted’ and rarely sign on to my account, it irks me that people dismiss Twitter like it’s nothing. Namely my coworkers. In defense of Twitter, one day I likened Twitter to The Backstreet Boys. I was dismissed, as you can imagine, and was left alone at my desk to flesh out my thoughts in written form for all to read, later to be sent out as a mass company-wide e-mail. Note: I have edited out some profanities. So here goes…

When people think “twitter” they think, “Oh that’s just some pop culture fad that has nothing special to offer the world. Sure it’s culturally prominent but it’s not a serious thing like Google or something.”

Well that’s just like BSB. In case you forgot who they were, the fab five dominated the ‘90s with their catchy tunes and smooth dance moves, capturing the hearts of teenagers (and I’m sure the occasional awkward adult) globally.

The Backstreet Boys were no Beatles. No one is arguing with you there. You can talk about the lameness of BSB until the cows come home. However, even with their melodramatic ways and overemotional songs, they made an impact. They were legit. They made a huge stamp on the world and whether or not you like it they were extremely prominent. Just like Twitter. People think tweets are a waste of time, just like listening to “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart).”  Waste of time nor not, The Backstreet Boys gathered millions of fans. Like Twitter.


I have a lot of questions. Is Twitter timeless? Were the Backstreet Boys timeless? Do I occasionally pop in my Backstreet’s Back cassette tape because I still like the music, or to mock it in all of its ‘90’s glory?  Will we look back at Twitter in the same way? Outgrow it and reminisce, years later floating in our flying cars, laughing with our pet robots about how ridiculous we were in the ‘00s? “And I posted what I ate for breakfast every day for all my friends, family and indifferent acquaintances to read! Can you believe it, Robazar!?”  Will Twitter become as embarrassingly synonymous to the 2000’s as cutoff jeans and mall hair were to the ‘80’s?  As scrunchies, boy bands and Skip-Its were to the ‘90’s?  Will Twitter break up in a few years because one of the members goes to rehab and another wants to start a solo career, take a three-year hiatus and then release a ridiculously named comeback album called Never Gone?  Only time can tell.

In sum, both are lame and wastes of time in many regards, but huge cultural icons that have their own role in changing the landscape forever.