I am, therefore I am…

Much hand-wringing in the New York Times Sunday Magazine this morning about Twitter: I Tweet, Therefore I Am. Is Twitter taking us out of the moment? Is Twitter obliging us to always play a role for our audience of tweeps?

I think we are always playing a role regardless of whether we are tweeting or not: the role of who we’d ideally like to be. And we’re playing to an audience of one: ourselves. Really, no one else cares remotely as much about you as you do.

So if this concerns you — if you feel that because of Twitter or anything else in our oh-so-distressing modern world that you have to be “on” all the time, that you are forgetting the moment and playing a part — I do have some advice. Practice. Practice being your authentic self at all times. Practice being in the moment. It’s not so easy to do, even if you reduce your technological distractions to zero. Even Buddhist monks have a hard time with it.

Or just give in to the Twitter. This T-shirt from Neatorama might help.

I Tweet, Therefore I Am (New York Times)
I Tweet Therefore I Am…Seriously? (andrewspittle.net)