Is Twitter-Bashing My New Hobby?

Today I was directed to an article on the Broadsheet blog (one of the Salon-sponsored blogs) that was allegedly about feminism and/or gender issues. And, although there is mention in the article about the discrepancies in working conditions for work-from-home female writers versus work-from-home male writers, that's not what tickled my brain.

Instead, I focused on this section of the article:

"The Tweets (reproduced here with Tweeterese intact) began with Orlean [a writer who is lamenting the struggle of writing from home] observing, 'It's much harder for women writers to immerse themselves in subjects; our focus gets pulled off by home & kid stuff. Guys tune out.' And then: 'My husband is on deadline and he's so absorbed I think he's forgotten my name. Me, I'm on deadline too, but can't afford that monovision.' (Perhaps as evidence, the Tweet immediately preceding this thought was about giving a balloon to her cat.) "

My thoughts are in line with one commenter to the article who succinctly noted, "I can't help but think that Susan Orlean's problems are not arising from the 'difficulties of being a woman writer working from home,' but rather her complete inability to focus on work without posting a tweet every five minutes or getting distracted by her cat."

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, Twitter is a vanity application (not wholly unlike blogging) that fuels the already-attention-deficient whirlwind of society. Sometimes just being able to express yourself in 140 characters doesn't mean your expression was meaningful.