Twitter has become ubiquitous, especially in the NBA, where all the news, smack and highlights can usually first be found in 140 characters or less. But the people on it can often be insufferable, and it seems like someone or something has gotten to Kevin Durant. The 2014 NBA MVP took to the social networking site today to ask a series of Socratic questions aimed at understanding why on earth anyone would ever send a tweet.
Stepping away from the editorial “we” for a second, because some our staff might not agree with me, Durant’s series of questions to no one, and everyone, has literally gone through my head every day for the last two years. You see, I HAVE to be on Twitter. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be very good at my job. BUT, oh how I loathe what it’s currently propagating in our society: an inability to think beyond the surface, or understand the nuances of an issue, or empathize with those who don’t fit into your neat, tidy pocket of the world.
Here’s KD:
Why do you post on Twitter?
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) January 13, 2015
You want a voice? You wanna be more popular?
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) January 13, 2015
You want to show people how funny you are because you're too insecure to do it in person? I know that's why posted in the past.
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) January 13, 2015
i*
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) January 13, 2015
You say it's "just Twitter" but is it really "just Twitter"
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) January 13, 2015
Oh well just thinking out loud.
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) January 13, 2015
While this series of tweets doesn’t ask a universal Francis Schaeffer question, delve into a Richard Tarnas treatise, or even offer a brief moment of Jack Handy levity, it is important — at least to me.
While he might not be discussing ontology, or religion (unless you count Twitter as a religion), he is discussing everyone’s rationale for having a Twitter account. I’m so tempted to just delete my account and run free of the screaming hordes after reading his thoughts “out loud,” but I can’t.
Such is life, and to be honest, pretty soon everyone will be on Twitter. It’s the new medium for the exchange of information, and the same people who condescendingly say “I don’t tweet” used to say, “I don’t own a television.”
Still, God bless Kevin Durant for asking important questions, even if some just think he’s reacting to some online jive.
UPDATE:
Camus > Sartre every day and twice on Sunday, but Sartre was right: “”L’enfer, c’est les autres [sur Twitter]”
(H/T Deadspin)
Why do you have a Twitter account?
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