These days, Twitter has been making more news than the news or even the new shows.
Kanye West started a war of non-sensicals with Latenight’s Jimmy Kimmel. Pope Francis has been Tweeting Jesus. And Adam Levine has gone after Gaga.
Was it a slow news period? Not really. The truth is that celebrities used to release interviews and statements when they wanted more press. Now they just tweet.
But why would Kanye West have the equivalent of a texted temper tantrum for the world to see?
Jimmy Kimmel had mocked Kanye’s BBC interview in which he claimed he was the number one rock star on the planet.
OK, it’s bad enough when other people put you on a pedestal. You know you’re eventually going to be knocked down. But Kanye put himself there with a spotlight. So Jimmy had a couple of bratty kids re-enact the interview on his show.
And in typical blow-it-out-of-proportion style, Kanye responded on Twitter with “Jimmy Kimmel is out of line to try and spoof in any way the first piece of honest media in years” – which in itself, is a stupendously stupid statement. But then he added a barrage of further tweets that included name-calling, threats and a few foul words that Jimmy also aired.
Kanye’s not stupid. Theoretically. However, this summer, he did have a much-touted record that topped the music charts in its first week – before sales dropped 80 per cent in its second – the fourth largest drop in U.S. history. So what’s the number one rock star on the planet to do?
Make sure he’s still the centre of attention.
Say something outrageous or pick a fight on Twitter. This seems to be the most popular method of getting attention.
The Pope, fearing his irrelevance in society, went for Option A when he referred to Jesus’ numerous parables as the world’s oldest tweets: concise yet full of information. Is this how the struggling Catholic Church relates to its younger parishioners?
Meanwhile, singer/music coach Adam Levine panned Lady Gaga as “recycling old art” coincidentally just as The Voice was returning for another season and he’s working on a new album.
What better time to complain about the state of pop music than when he’s going to help find a new star and release a new song?
These excessive and pointless tweets and arguments for argument’s sake need to stop.
The public has enough difficulty keeping track of what’s happening with the U.S. government’s fiscal cliff, the unrest in the Middle East or the Kenyan mall attack without self-aggrandizing Twitter-hogs taking up the available airspace between our ears.
And I don’t like being manipulated. Tweets started out as a nice way for the stars to connect with folks on a more personal level that didn’t involve restraining orders. Now, it’s just a method of getting added press without actually asking for it.
Forget the maximum 140 characters in a tweet. There should be a maximum number of tweets – so that we try to make our words count.
