I am a member of a forum where, a few months back, someone started a very disparaging thread about the Twitter phenomenon. The poster believed that Twitter marked the end of intelligent written discourse as we know it.
Needless to say a heated debate ensued.
I don't subscribe to that notion. I follow friends, agents and writers. The latter two because I've learned a fair bit from the links that they post. Friends, well,that goes without saying.
One thing that has emerged, is the use of Twitter to chronicle emerging news stories. Today, the Twitterverse is alive with terse, horrific and frightening reports from Iran following this week's election debacle. It is a sad and sobering experience to see these short bursts of information, of riots, of tear gas, of protests and, worst of all, the state clamping down on those who are questioning the 'results' of the election. Tweeters (is that the proper word?) are retweeting the user names of English-speaking Iranian tweeters, the information is spreading across the Twitterverse.
If you Tweet and you want to know what's going on. Get on Twitter and do a search, #IranElection should get you where you want to go.
By all means, watch the news, but find some locals and hear what's going on as it happens. Wish them luck, tell them they're in your thoughts and your prayers and don't let what's happening in Iran be confined to a few minutes of gloss on the nightly news.
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