On Chaucer and Twitter

Too frequently, media analysis of Twitter reverts to an intense criticism of what it is not. As a former member of "the media" (I used to work at the Chicago Sun-Times, as well as a few other online sites, allmusicguide, RollingStone online, Salon.com), I have some opinions myself. But because my job no longer depends on advertising content (now an attorney), I might have some different conclusions on the subject.

I love books. Musty books. Hardcover books you have to hold on the spine so they don't fall apart. I like to go into old libraries, hide in dank basements, and read dated books on dated subjects. Just now, I'm reading Men and Rubber, a book from the late 20s, which I highly recommend. I probably average two a week, and I have since I was in high school. And I love Twitter, too. And before they became largely irrelevant and lost nearly all of their talent, I loved magazines and newspapers.

To appreciate any of these media, and to develop yourself as a 21st century Human, you get nowhere focusing on what they are not. However, you can develop a significant edge by using all of them to your advantage. Reading Wyckoff and LeFevre will give you the background and sage wisdom on trading and investing, but reading tweets from Hamzei, Kass, and Adam Warner will give you a glimpse of what the masters are doing in real time. Reading Halberstam on your front porch might be the best way to get a full portrait of Michael Jordan, but Deadspin can give you a much needed break from a stressful work day. And its zeitgeist fits as much with this time as Halberstam did with his. None of these is mutually exclusive.

If you take any single tweet from an unknown source as gospel, you're a fool. But no less of a fool as someone who believes everything she reads in print as sacrosanct. Today, as in prior generations, the onus is on each of us to determine which sources to rely upon and to what extent. Just as the onus is on the information source to create a viable means of publication. That we should have more sources of information is not a curse, but a tremendous advantage. If you spend your life twittering, and you never read a book, it won't be twitter's fault that you're shallow. It will be your own.

Twitter is a news source. Raw as sashimi, but news nonetheless. What you make of it is up to you.