Ashton Kutcher exaggerates the importance of Twitter
Ashton Kutcher is an actor, producer, show creator, and husband to Demi Moore. He’s also a Twitter celebrity with almost 3 million followers. A fact which now seems to have gone to his head and made him exaggerate the power, importance, and virtues of Twitter.
Twitter is a well-known hangout for celebrities of all sorts. Unlike other social networks, here is an opportunity for famous faces to talk at people, promote whatever it is they’re currently doing, set press reports right, and connect with their fans. All without having to dedicate hours on end building, maintaining, and updating a Web site.
I can certainly see the appeal Twitter holds for celebrities, even more so than for us normal folk who essentially use Twitter as a means of updating our friends with the minutiae of life. But that doesn’t mean Twitter is suddenly going to change the world, even if Ashton Kutcher says it is.
Ashton Kutcher, or aplusk as he’s known in Twitterland, told CNET:
Individuals are becoming consumers and (the) editors of the media. It has and will forever change media. It gives you an ability to stay in tune with your audience…but also as it has continued to grow, it gives me a great platform to syndicate content.
The role of the individual is certainly changing at the moment, but it’s the Internet as a whole which is having that effect rather than Twitter exclusively. The Web gives each of us the ability to pick and choose the news we read, to spread the stories we want to, and to add to the conversation. But that’s as true of blogs and personal Web sites as it is of Twitter.
Kutcher seems to be laboring under the misconception that twitter started this movement towards changing the media. But the truth is it’s been slowly happening for a number of years, with old media being consumed or replaced by new media. Blogs have played a part, as have social networks such as MySpace and Facebook. And so, of course, has Twitter.
However, it’s a small part of a larger change rather than being the all-important component Kutcher is claiming it to be. Twitter is a fine example of the way both communication and the media are evolving. And Kutcher has done well to be at the forefront of this movement. But both his ad Twitter’s role in this evolution should not be overstated. Even by him.
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