Kanye doesn't get it!

So a little bit of petty e-imposting has provoked Kanye West into a CAPS LOCKS rant about the puerility of Twitter. I glad to know he’s either genuinely busy or on the beach. I hate to think of successful recording artists giving up the perks of their position to become internet addicts! He has a point about Twitter: some people do Tweet rubbish about which nobody should care, although sadly some do. But he is misguided to right the platform off. Micro-blogging is a legitimate form of communication, like blogging or online video or magazines or TV shows. All of these can provide us with shocking examples of the power to publish placed in the wrong hands. Used correctly, however, all these platforms can inform, inspire and entertain.

We are becoming digital nomads, seemingly adopting and adapting to new online platforms at an increasing rate. Driven by the desire to connect with people we are less loyal to the means than we are to the end. Once my social networking world revolved around MySpace, now it is Facebook that gets the lion’s share of attention. Why? Not because I prefer it – I don’t – but purely because that’s where everybody else is. This is where Twitter wins. It is the place to see and been seen. To that end anybody serious about keeping up a credible, assessable web presence needs to be there. At least for now. Give it a year and another start up will have reached critical mass and we’ll all be headed off over there. Perhaps by then Kanye will have learnt to get in quick to stake a claim on your identity, whether you subsequently use the application or not.