Keith Lightfoot Blogosphere

Maybe it is time for me to embark upon a new social networking tool called Kitter, a combination of Keith and Litter (or more appropriately “Kitty Litter”), and in line with current new offerings I will keep the text limit to an even smaller amount, say 11 characters.

Whereas Twitter has successfully pioneered microblogging (Tweets) by offering a huge 140 characters and Flutter is tempting us with the idea of nanoblogging (Flaps) with a 26 character maximum; Kitter will surpass them all with the introduction of femtoblogging (Kraps) in just 11 characters.

It amazes me how we seem to be progressing away from ourselves in the current race to say little about anything to everybody always.

When Morse code was introduced people were excited that a new form of instant communication was available, although only a few key people could actually send and receive messages. The humble telegram was another form of “limited communication” but at least it was reasonably fast in its delivery compared to the standard postal system. Then thanks to Alexander Graham Bell, we jumped ahead to the telephone and could finally hear the voice of our loved ones, we could share ideas and truly interact in full conversation mode no matter where we were.

Cell phones made it possible to talk to anybody (with a cell phone) anywhere, anytime and opened a whole new wave of conversation opportunities.

Once having mastered the cell phone technology, our next move as a technological society is to immediately regress into text messages to limit our conversations, introduce another form of RSI, create a whole new sub segment of the English language, create drive while texting scenarios, flood the airwaves with confusing messages and make possible the art of talking whilst not actually communicating.

Society is now seeking ways to accommodate these new non English, non talking, “text only” people, to the point where debates are taking pace re allowing the “abbreviated English” (SMS language, textese, chatspeak, txt, txtspk, txtk, texting language or txt talk) to be accepted in school examinations.

As if this degradation of the English language was not enough, we now embrace Twitter as a new communication phenomenon! How does a technology platform that limits your messages to 140 characters become heralded as a new communication tool?

Surely it is the very essence of a non-communications tool, with amble opportunity for huge confusion, repeat messaging for clarification, mindless content and the continuous transmission of unwanted information.

I have witnessed couples separate and business deals lost through the confusion caused by cell phone text messaging (with unlimited characters available) whereas a simple five minute voice conversation would have saved the day. Where will this new 140 character limit take us; surely experience in our own personal relationships has taught us that if we constantly speak without listening, if we do not consistently seek instant clarification and if we deliberately hold back information, then it usually ends in disaster.

We are now celebrating the introduction of Flutter, another ground breaking communication tool that allows us to send a whole 26 characters of text! It seems we have moved back to the humble telegram with this technology, not moved forward. Bell must be looking down at us and shaking his head.

In the scientific world of nanotechnology we note that if you take aluminium and cut it in half, it is still aluminium. But if you keep cutting aluminium in half until it has dimensions on the nano scale, it becomes highly reactive. This is because the molecular structure was changed. Maybe this is exactly what happens to a well meaning message when sliced and compressed into a Tweet or a Flap.

I suspect my new “Kitter” technology will steal the show, until someone comes up with an even more leading edge solution and perhaps offers us as much as 3 characters per message.

Thks 4 rdng

Hve grt day

Tme 4 cofee

GOD Bless

Bye