The American Spectator

Though I don’t Tweet myself—for reasons which quasi-resemble John Mayer’s—I have extolled the virtues and vices of the social media site at this magazine and elsewhere. While I generally believe there’s too much Tweeting and not enough thinking, as one of a laundry list of problems, Twitter does allow for instant communication, and acts as mediator between very different people and ideas.

As I said a couple years ago:

Twitter is to messaging what blogs were to the Internet. Its fast-paced form is lucid and vast and open to venom and veracity simultaneously. Its the beautiful result of what happens when the need for rapid communication and the beauty of capitalism collude.

Case in point: 25-year old Canadian rapper, Drake, who apparently has a penchant for $6,000 socks recently Tweeted that making “The first million is the hardest.” Amazingly, T. Boone Pickens, who just celebrated his 84th birthday, and who is a vocally conservative, wind-turbine loving oil magnate, (and who actually follows Drake) Tweeted smugly: “The first billion is a helluva lot harder.” (To his credit, Drake Tweeted back a humble response.)

Touche`my friend.

Even with its flaws and tendency for narcissism and babble, only on Twitter would we see two worlds collide, paychecks analyzed, and reflections of humility and pride in a matter of moments.