Twitter the work of the devil?
Admittedly, twitter-bashing has proven to be one of this blog’s signature themes. But we like to think we’ve shown some restraint; for instance, we’ve never called down the wrath of God upon Twitter’s trendy little head. Nor have we suggested its use might cost you your mortal life, much less your immortal soul. For those pronouncements, we have Vincent Nichols, head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, who last week introduced some weighty theological components to the whole phenomenon.
Not content with the usual suspect criticisms—like the notion that tweeting and texting causes humanity to lose “the ability to build interpersonal communication that’s necessary for living together”—the Archbishop ratchets up the stakes, saying that friendships built around electronic communication and social networking sites create “transient relationships” that put users at risk of suicide. No, you read that correctly. The man (of the cloth) said suicide. Which, by the teachings of the church, not only puts an end to this life, it doesn’t do much for your situation in the next.
Of course, we here at Big are in no position to weigh in on the religious implications of tweeting, although we have more than once thought its creators might benefit from a little time in the confessional. So we’ll leave you to reach your own conclusions. But lest ye get too skeptical, we’d like to point out that, just this morning, Twitter was down for about two and a half hours, due to a mysterious denial-of-service attack. Coincidence?