Charlie Hustle

one forty plus.: Twitter Isn't "Over", I'm Over It.

Last week in Los Angeles I participated in a live Q&A as part of an ASCAP expo on songwriting. When the topic of Twitter came up, I explained my waning interest in it being part of my daily life. By no means do I think it’s over as a medium altogether, but I do think that the days of “Twitter: The…

When someone mentions Twitter, fewer and fewer people are asking “What the hell is that?” It is very much just another part of the internet now, not many surprises are coming out of it. Tweeting books? Been there. Fake “ .” Over it. God? Food? Done and done, attorneys at law.

And as John (Mr. Mayer? John Mayer? John Mayer’s tumblr?) says, its not exactly the healthiest means of communication. It pretty much takes the worst part of the internet (the commenters) and puts them at the forefront. I love reading John’s - I’m gonna go with John - and other celebrities tweets. I love it when they twitpic and show personality and offer insight we would never normally get, at least not in such a from-the-horses-mouth kind of way. But it opens them up to not only fans, but also “haters.” Years of pop-culture watching tells me that rarely ends well.

Relatedly, I just clicked the link on HuffPo that said “John Mayer: Twitter is pretty much done.” It sent me to an article on E! Online. The writing of the article (is article even the right word?) is about the caliber you would expect, with lovely clauses like these sprinkled throughout:

John Mayer decided to break his self-imposed silence to share his thoughts on Twitter because he knows you’ve all been waiting to know his great insight into the future of social media….

…but it’s not like we were expecting a broad answer from the notoriously self-obsessed singer anyway

Here’s the thing. I wouldn’t exactly expect you to write on the Expo or why it exists or why he was there. But you have decided to write an article about a Q&A response from John Mayer about his thoughts on Twitter. This, apparently, is worth your time. Rather than respond in a manner that in anyway furthers the discussion, you turned this into another article (still feels wrong) about his apparent self-obsession. I know you’re just a blogger for E! Online, but come on. Truly, your response to “My challenge going forward is to basically disregard the need, the obsessive need for external validation” are the snide comments quoted above? Really? And you don’t see why he would want to get away from that “need for external validation”?

While I’m here and writing about John Mayer, can we talk about this whole self-obsession thing? From what I can tell, and I may be totally wrong, but from what I can tell, he seems like a pretty decent and honest guy. I think Dave Eggers would call him, or at least wouldn’t mind me calling him, “true of heart.” We are all self-centered. Maybe it varies person to person, but we are all the main characters in the Romantic Action Dramedies that are our lives. And this faceless E! Online blogger really can’t claim to be any different, using what is basically a meme (John Mayer’s Self-obsession) to gain readership and article comments. I think it is this sort of universal and thoughtless response to celebrities that put themselves out there - even more than they by definition already are - that drives relatively accessible ones like John Mayer away.

1 year ago 5930 notes

Charlie Hustle

I just like saying "I should really go update my blog."

one forty plus.: Twitter Isn't "Over", I'm Over It.