Twit-wit

It was dark outside, the wind howling and shrieking.  The shadows of the branches on the window panes danced an eerily energetic dance. The mind-numbing chores of a demanding house-hold were done, for the day. The kids fed, read to and sh-shhued away to sleep. Like everyday she was huddled between them - both wanting to cuddle her. Her smart-phone rested on her chest. She smiled listening to their soft even breathing and still nestled between their sleeping selves, she moved her thumb on the screen and looked through her Twitter Timeline.

She skimmed through the information barf that could be spewed inspite of the 140-character limit. Politics,  tech talk, finance, arts, literature, self-promotion, music, random factoids which normally one would never go and seek - all swept to your shore by the trending information waves. You only had to tune your TimeLine with relevant follows. Wannabe journos and opinion-makers challenged the ones with the brief. Spiritual, sexual and SEO gurus all shared space in this ecosystem.  One could eavesdrop on closed-group discussions between friendly tweeples, it was totally allowed. Twitter was a forever party - the never-ending staccato of tweets, OD of information, personalities, stories, encounters, dreams, rants.........

She often wondered how the @handles lived their lives off-twitter. There were the self-proclaimed know-it-alls, who had an opinion on everything and anything, and who defended their twitter ego vociferously. Everybody seemed so interesting and knowledgeable and could spout Rumi or Kabir or Gibran, just like that. The F1 final, the Obama Presidential campaign, the death of Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray, movie reviews, Syria, Israel-Palestine - united and divided the macrocosm of humanity who lived on and off Twitter. Not to discount the millions of mindless self-ruminations or tweets of the inebriated. News, views and sometimes random abuse.  You only needed an opinion and a bit of conviction to make it big on Twitter. And then you could flaunt it with your follower count ! Twitterati were the Gliterratis , often with a limited shelf life. A follow-back or retweet or mention @ and #FFs were considerable honours here.

The business and tech side of it fascinated her - the number of apps built around it, the way it had revolutionized  the outlook for digital social media. And the way it was used to mobilize consent, launch protestations, build opinions and keep enterprises and individuals on their toes. Like any other space, deceit, frauds, cheating had infiltrated here too. Wasn't it amazing how trusting people were still so trusting of just a voice from a remote corner?

She her self was an info-aggregator, and a bit of procrastinator, so often she added random and diverse facts to her favorites. Once in a week she had allocated time to read and recycle this now stale collection of digital links, only so she could add some more. Pun and repartie within a 140-character limit eluded her. Micro-blogging was not her style - long-winded blog posts, yes. Moreover, she had no specific agenda. She was not interested in pointless exchanges, and had no love for heated debates or controversies. The basics of relating did not change here either. There were various levels of inner and outer circles, closed groups based on political leanings, professional coteries, and random long-time interactions. Six degrees of separation did not work for Twitter, but making friends and contacts needed persistence that she could not spare.

She still preferred google for searches, there was a semblance of order. Though, reaction time was quick on Twitter too, and often someone always had an answer. That was amazing. She enjoyed the troll incidences, too many of late. It was just easier not to take a stand, remain a bystander yet again in the ensuing digital chaos, listening to polarizing views, persisting to yours.

Did twitter usage mirror her true personality? She did not know or care. She pressed her thumb and shut the app altogether. She certainly had #enoughfornow.