Some of you may have noticed the new gadget on my sidebar: Yes indeed, hate to say, in the last day or so I've become a twit -- or, less self-deprecatingly, a

... or rather, tweeter. I'm a relatively late adopter of this -- scare quotes, anyone? -- "communications" "tool" -- but a number of people have asked me to become a "friend", so I decided to try it out to see what the "fuss" is all about. This business of "friends" is of course, quite ridiculous -- a true "friend" of mine once told me that after he opened such an account (well, it was actually a Facebook account, but same diff.), he soon had more "friends" than ever before, and never felt so lonely in his life. And frankly, up to now I just haven't had the stomach to learn yet another computer app.

The limitation -- 140 words -- is obvious. And the question too, the stuff of idiocy: What are you doing? Frankly, what I'm thinking is practically always a lot more interesting that what I'm doing. That's why I'm sitting at a computer. Of course, most of us so-called tweeters soon ignore that opening gambit and jot opinions, links, etc. (I did it from the very start.)

Call it Blogging Extra-lite. Nanoblogging. Net telegraph. (Actually, the official term is micro-blogging.) The appeal: well, it's not so wordy as all this goddamned blogging. At140 words, including hyperlinks, style -- or use of lengthy words, or even extraneous parentheses -- are quickly defenestrated. Yr as good as anyone els: 4 concision's sake, U soon start using sh frms. 2 spk., which is v. good for egalitsm.

The other thing, though, is that it's POPULAR. In two minutes, after announcing my recent review, a certain social connector who posts about ten times a day sent a big waoooh! and the word on to about 125 people. This blog, on the other hand, has become rather a quiet place. Does the sudden rise of twitter have anything to do with it?

Other indicators suggest that twittering is a passing fad that may soon be abandoned by all but a few stalwarts. (Like blogging, actually.) According a study referenced by this site, already more than half of all twitter accounts are inactive -- that is, haven't posted an update for at least week, and only 5% of tweeters account for 75% of tweets.

Maybe, though, with skillful use of tweets I can drag some twits -- err tweeters -- into this bog, rather blog. We'll see.