Sunday 23 July 2017

Thin line between twit and Twitter

Celebrities should realise that you can't put a fence around human curiosity, writes Eilis O'Hanlon

IN THE early days, Twitter was seen as nothing more than a tool to relay short SMS messages to groups of friends and colleagues. Hardly the stuff of a communication revolution. Only when it became an indispensable accessory for egomaniacs who wanted the world to know every detail of their daily lives did it really catch on.

Tweets were the contemporary equivalent of those diary entries we all used to write as children. Got up. Had breakfast. Went to school. Celebrities quickly jumped on the bandwagon, simultaneously transfiguring and tainting what they touched, as they can't help doing.

Suddenly fans at home realised they could brighten their own prosaic days with regular updates from the world of the rich and famous, whose routines seemed so much more fascinating. Though anyone who has ever wandered on to the Twitter page of Kim Kardashian -- self-styled "business woman, exec producer, fashion designer, perfumista" -- would soon be disabused of that notion. "Just got my late night tan! Thank goodness for Jimmy CoCo!!!!" Exclamation marks are compulsory in Tweetland.

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