You say you want a revolution...

Well, you know we all wanna change the world. You tell me that it's evolution!

I'm here tonight with a blog that is neither up close and personal nor entertainment oriented... It's merely a few musings I've been meaning to put down on paper (so to speak). In truth, after a detour from homework which led to a bit of time on BlogTV with author Maureen Johnson (founder of the epic Blog Every Day April - see my earlier post), I was simply inspired to keep blogging!

Now, if my efforts to be a frequent blogger or the sidebar littered with social networks is any indication, I'm highly interested in technological (aka online) trends. I've participated in an online forum - The Leaky Lounge - for almost 2 years now, and I'm now on staff one of the sections of the site, in addition to being a moderator. I'm regularly on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, BlogTV and Ustream, here (Blogger), and most recently, also a fun little site called DailyBooth - in addition to my efforts with a start up company and Beta website called Sazze.com (it's a really cool site - you should check it out! ) I love finding out and keeping track of about trends like This Is Not Tom (is it really all John Green?!), all the crazy Nings, BEDA, FML.com, failblog... etc. It's such a cool part of our generation and our society.But let me backtrack. I don't have forever to rant about this tonight - this might just be part one - but I want to start with TWITTER.

Picture this: average family dinner, homemade meal (delicious, by the way, Mom), chatter about "how was your day" and "did you hear what Obama did," etc - stereotypical, if you will. Now add in a full out description of Twitter, tweets, followers, time lines, hashtag searches... the full works. This was my family's dinner tonight.

In case you don't know what twitter is, well, you're silly. I'm not about to explain - you should just go find out. Or, better yet, go set up an account and get addicted with the rest of us. Twitter is social networking at the max. It's random strangers following each other (or better yet, celebrities) in their attempts to make 140 characters of text worthwhile and interesting (or mundane, inane, frustrating... choose an adjective).

So, you might have caught a key word in that last paragraph... celebrity. In my opinion, this is one of the absolute coolest parts of Twitter. Sure, hearing little bits and pieces about your friends' days is fun (and, no, it's not all "X is going to the bathroom" as some people seem to think)... but that's not exactly, well, what's the word? - Revolutionary. No, to me, the really fantastic part of Twitter is being able to hear and see bits of lives from people like Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, Stephen Fry and John Cleese, John Mayer and Hugh Jackman, Tom Felton and Matt Lewis, Greg Grunburg and Brea Grant... I could go on and on. Pick a reason - gossip, curiosity, getting back at the paparazzi, feeling special - whichever. Hearing 140 characters at a time, seeing "twitpic" photos, being linked to videos and articles, all from people that are supposedly "out of reach" and famous is just plain cool.

Now, for my next argument in favor of Twitter (not that I'm particularly arguing with anyone - although if you want to disagree with me, feel free to speak up in the comments!), I wanted to first share with you something that Ashton Kutcher recently posted:

My dad always said that "I'll believe it when I hear it from the horse's mouth." Twitter is the horse's mouth. No more "well, the news said..."

Did you know that the story about the plane landing in the Hudson river broke on Twitter? That the first photograph came not from a news network, but from someone on the scene, posting from their iPhone? Did you know that Demi Moore recently saved a woman's life when she posted about a seemingly suicidal comment the woman made and thousands of her followers responded? Did you know that the Amazon-Fail story is powered by Twitter? (If you don't know what I'm talking about with this last one, look it up - it's stupid and ridiculous!)

Twitter is the new CNN and the new nightly news. Sure, newspapers are failing and companies are busy figuring out how to boost online news reading, but what they aren't realizing is that it's not how they do it, it's the simple fact that they're being replaced. We are evolving to the next level of news-getting... of society itself, I'd even venture. We are achieving (and have achieved already) a new type of global community, including an ongoing global dialogue, in which people can talk instantly around the world. Of course, this is a basic part of the Internet as a whole and as such, this is a fact of life that is now generally accepted. But, with the invent of Facebook statuses and then, now, Twitter, this is happening in a live and constant way as it never has before.

So, still doubt me? I could go on... But, it's really best if you try it yourself to see what I'm talking about. You may be left rolling on the floor in laughter at Stephen Colbert's inane comments like "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Just make sure to stab with an upward motion;" or you might be amazed by the upclose photos from the set of Heroes, provided by makeup artist "WendyLynMakeup." Whatever puts a smile on you're face, well, frankly, you're sure to find on Twitter... 140 characters at a time.