Robert K. Blechman discusses the influence of new social media, particularly Twitter, on communication and creativity, paralleling this with the effects of historical media like the printing press. He explores the potential downsides of Twitter in fostering superficial interactions, yet argues for its potential to democratize storytelling and literature. Ultimately, he presents his own narrative experiment, 'Executive Severance,' crafted within the constraints of Twitter's format.

1. The Tedium is the Message?
Communicating and Creating
With New Social Media
Robert K. Blechman, Ph.D.
New York Public Library
September 4, 2012
―My name is Robert Blechman and I am a Twitter novelist.‖

2. My Other Links
Twitter RKBs_Twitstery
Whale Fire www.executiveseverance.blogspot.com
A Model Media Ecologist
www.robertkblechman.blogspot.com
Other Sites
The Savage Mind on Madison Avenue
http://savagemindmadave.blogspot.com/
The Heart of the Matter
http://rkbheartmatter.blogspot.com/
2

3. The Medium
Tedium
is
The Message
3

4. Of course, my title ―The Tedium is the Message‖ is a play on media theorist
Marshall McLuhan’s famous dictum ―The Medium is the Message.‖
McLuhan wrote that ―Technological environments are not merely passive
containers of people but are active processes that reshape people and other
technologies alike.‖
My talk today is about new social media in general and about Twitter in
particular. I will talk about the rise of Internet based social media in the context
of the history of communication advances and the possible impact of social
media on public and private discourse. I will end with a discussion about my
own efforts to use social media for creative endeavors. If you came tonight
wondering whether it is possible to actually write an entire novel in Twitter,
SPOILER ALERT! The answer will be YES!
4

5. Is Twitter Making Us Dumber?
5

6. Is Twitter Making Us Dumber?
―In a Twitter discussion, opinions and our tolerance for others’ opinions are
stunted. Whether or not Twitter makes you stupid, it certainly makes some
smart people sound stupid.‖
-Bill Keller, The New York Times Magazine, May 18, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/magazine/the-twitter-trap.html?_r=1
The shortcomings of social media would not bother me awfully if I did not
suspect that Facebook friendship and Twitter chatter are displacing real rapport
and real conversation, just as Gutenberg’s device displaced remembering. The
things we may be unlearning, tweet by tweet — complexity, acuity, patience,
wisdom, intimacy — are things that matter.
-Bill Keller, The New York Times Magazine, May 18, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/magazine/the-twitter-trap.html?_r=1
A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that the net, with its constant
distractions and interruptions, is turning us into scattered and superficial
thinkers.
-Nicholas Carr, The Telegraph, August 7, 2010
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet/7967894/How-the-Internet-is-making-us-stupid.html
6

7. Is Twitter Making Us Dumber?
7

8. The Printing Press
8

9. Every new medium of communication is initially met with fear and
trepidation by someone. The printing press, invented by Johannes
Gutenberg in 1440, allowed the general public to have access to books
and thus to knowledge that had not been available to them before.
General literacy was of some concern to Catholic priests who feared a
population with access to Bibles in their own native language. How could
the laity be trusted to interpret the word of God? Martin Luther soon
proved their fears anything but groundless. Luther translated the Bible
into German and the Catholic hierarchy’s monopoly on divinely revealed
knowledge evaporated.
The printing press also led to broader inquiries into science, the arts,
history and human nature, known in hindsight as ―The Renaissance‖.
This first technology of mass production provided the model for
industrialization, the factory system of manufacture as well as the
economic system of capitalism. In addition, a literate populace was the
foundation for democracy
9

10. The Gutenberg Galaxy
10

11. In addition, print based literacy lead to standardization of
spelling, rules of punctuation and mandates about proper
grammar, things about books we take for granted today. For
example, it wasn’t until 75 years after the invention of the
printing press that someone thought to number the pages of a
book.
Attitudes toward new media change over time. In The
Gutenberg Galaxy, Marshall McLuhan noted how Elizabethan
playwrights thought print publication of their work a form of
prostitution.
11

12. The Gutenberg Galaxy
Alas, ‘tis true I have gone
here and there
And made myself a motley
to the view
Gor’d mine own
thoughts, sold cheap
What is most dear…
Sonnet 110
12

13. In Sonnet 110 William Shakespeare wrote:
Alas, ‘tis true I have gone here and there
And made myself a motley to the view
Gor’d mine own thoughts, sold cheap
What is most dear…
The publicizing or confessional outing of private views seemed to
the writers of Shakespeare’s era to warrant the association of the
printing press with pornography and filth.
13

14. The Gutenberg Galaxy
So long as men can
breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this
gives life to thee.
Sonnet 18
14

15. In addition to the splitting of the public and private self, McLuhan
noted the promise of immortality poets saw in the printing press.
Sonnet 18
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this,
and this gives life to thee.
15

16. The Telegraph
16

17. The next breakthrough in communications, the telegraph, was
invented by Samuel Morse in 1837,followed closely by the
Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone in 1876. The telegraph enabled
communication across almost any distance.
According to McLuhan, ―It was not until the advent of the telegraph
that messages could travel faster than the messenger.‖ (UM p.
127) Henry David Thoreau warned that the telegraph might be no
more than a conduit for news that ―Princess Adelaide has the
whooping cough.‖
17

18. The Telegraph
18

19. According to historian Tom Standage, there was an Internet during the
Victorian Era, based on the telegraph. The telegraph was
―a new communications technology that allowed people to communicate
almost instantly across great distances, that revolutionized business
practice, gave rise to new forms of crime and inundated its users with a
deluge of information. Romances blossomed over the wires. Secret codes
were devised by some users…The benefits of the telegraphic network
were relentlessly hyped by its advocates and dismissed by its skeptics.
Governments and regulators tried and failed to control the new medium.
Attitudes toward everything from news gathering to diplomacy had to be
completely rethought. Meanwhile, out on the wires, a technological
subculture with its own customs and vocabulary was establishing itself.‖
(The Victorian Internet. p. VII-VIII)
Sound familiar?
19

20. Radio/TV
20

21. In 1895, Guglielmo Marconi built a wireless system capable of
transmitting signals at long distances. Radio was initially an operator-
to-operator form of communication used by amateurs. Early TV was
really just radio with pictures. Both mass media matured into significant
conduits for entertainment, news and commerce.
Though McLuhan suggested that radio and then television made us all
neighbors by creating a ―global village,‖ critics like Newton Minnow
called television a ―vast wasteland‖
21

22. Radio/TV
22

23. Radio/TV
23

24. and Media Ecologist Neil Postman complained that TV trivialized
discourse to the point where we were ―amusing ourselves to death.‖
24

25. The Digital Age
25

26. This brings us to the digital age. The printing press, the telegraph, radio
and television required access to large amounts of capital to bring
about functional operations. Control of the medium meant control of
content.
That all changes with the Internet. Barriers to entry are removed and
anyone, at least in theory, can produce videos, audio programs,
commentary, books and news reports. Consumers become producers.
Consumers can view their videos on YouTube, record their diaries and
critiques on WordPress, pin their pictures on Pinterest, capitalize on
their business connections on Linkedin and count their friendships on
Facebook. This brings us to Twitter.
26

27. What is Twitter?
27

28. Twitter is an online application that is part blog, part social
networking site, part cell phone/IM tool, all designed to let users
answer the question ―What are you doing?
28

29. Who is Tweeting?
• Over 500 million active users as of 2012
• Over 340 millions tweets daily
29

30. History repeats itself as we learn to adapt to publication of our
private lives and thoughts in the era of the new social media.
Internet resources like Twitter and Facebook offer to democratize
the publication process, but also permit the unintentional outering of
previously private spaces.
Although most individual tweets say very little, or seem tedious and
mundane at best, ardent Twitter users argue that the true value of
Twitter comes from following people over time, developing an
understanding of who they really are and knowing—in real time—
what they are doing and how they feel about it.
30

31. Why Is It Significant?
• Twitter creates a new channel of communication
• Twitter facilitates a new way of seeing and
understanding people
31

32. Although most individual tweets say very little, ardent Twitterers say
that the magic comes from following people over time, developing a
sense of who they really are and knowing—at nearly any moment—
what they are doing and how they feel about it.
32

33. What Are Some Downsides?
• The most common criticism of Twitter is that
it enables inane interaction
• As an asynchronous broadcast service, there
is no guarantee that any individual tweet will
be read
33

34. Gaining Twitter Followers
• Celebrities have an advantage
– Lady Gaga – 28,844,130 followers
– Justin Bieber – 27,179,383 followers
– Katy Perry – 25,681,620 followers
…
– CNN Breaking News – 8,593,231 followers
– BBC Breaking News – 3,906,762 followers
34

35. Gaining Twitter Followers
• Politicians, not necessarily
– Barack Obama – 18,964,766 followers
– Mitt Romney – 928,115 followers
35

36. However…
36

37. Lady Gaga’s Twitter Spam: Up to 72 Percent of Megastar’s followers
could be fake
37

38. Brevity is the Soul of Wit
“What could be more
practical for a man caught
between the Scylla of a
literary culture and the
Charybdis of post-literate
technology to make himself
a raft of ad copy?”
38

39. While McLuhan didn’t have anything to say about posting in
Twitter, media scholar Paul Levinson has noted that McLuhan’s
penchant for aphorisms like ―the medium is the message‖ or ―we
all live in a global village‖ would have made him a natural tweeter.
The closest McLuhan came to Twitter was his observation about
navigating through digital technology:
What could be more practical for a man caught between the
Scylla of a literary culture and the Charybdis of post-literate
technology to make himself a raft of ad copy?
39

40. Computer Screen Limitations
40

41. MIT Media Theories Sherry Turkle believes that friendships based
screen interactions have limitations.
•Weak connections vs. strong conversations
•We’ve become accustomed to a new way of being ―alone together.‖
•Texting and e-mail and posting let us present the self we want to be.
•E-mail, Twitter, Facebook do not substitute for conversation.
41

42. Twitter on The View
The Views – 157,395 follower
42

43. Certainly Twitter has penetrated deeply into the content of other
media. The View has a weekly Twitter update.
43

44. Twitter on The News
44

45. News coverage frequently features a Twitter feed crawling along the
bottom of the screen.
45

46. Twitter on David Letterman
Ricky Gervais – 2,943,395 followers David Letterman – 44,420 followers
46

47. Creative Uses of Twitter
47

48. Twitter has been criticized for demeaning discourse, perverting
grammar and degrading spelling and punctuation. But is something
else possible?
48

49. The New Yorker
Jennifer Egan, ―Black Box,‖ The New Yorker, June 4, 2012
49

50. The New Yorker magazine has given legitimacy to the notion of Twitter
literature. Starting on May 24, 2012 Jennifer Egan tweeted ―Black Box,‖
at the rate of one tweet per minute for an hour each night until she
completed her Twitter short story.
50

51. 51

52. To challenge the negative responses to Twitter I conceived a literary
experiment: Was it possible to maintain a narrative structure and attract
a reading public in Twitter, 140 characters at a time?
I coined a new term ―Twitstery‖ for the Twitter mystery genre and
created a Twitter account ―RKBs_Twitstery‖ as a container for my
detective novel ultimately titled Executive Severance.
Starting on May 6, 2009 I posted a new Executive Severance tweet
twice a day every day for 15 months, never missing a deadline.
52

53. Why a Detective Story?
53

54. Why a detective story? McLuhan noted that ―In reading a detective
story the reader participates as co-author simply because so much
has been left out of the narrative.”
Twitter is also intensely participatory and yet necessarily limited and
so I adopted the detective genre as the driver for my story. Would my
hero solve the crime? Would he undergo physical and mental trials?
Would he get the girl? Would he spawn a publishing franchise?
The detective genre provided an accessible façade to what I
conceived to be a new type of poetry. My work would be a sort of
sheep in wolf’s clothing.
54

55. 55

56. During the year and a quarter of my extended Twitter publication I
averaged 180 followers a day.
56

57. Twitter as a Literary Medium
57

58. Twitter’s 140 character limit required intensive wordsmithing, the
omission of punctuation in some cases and a lot of counting.
Spelling, punctuation and grammer had to bend to the dictates of the
medium. In other words, the standards we have accepted since the
printing press are now being challenged by Digital Age literacy.
I cultivated brevity, concision and succinctness.
58

59. Narrative Strategies of Comic Strips
59

60. I soon realized that episodic nature of the Twitter timetable forced me to
adopt the serial techniques of newspaper comic page story telling. I
needed to learn the narrative strategies of Al Capp, Chester Ghould or
Milton Caniff as well as Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane. How
did comic strip authors hold their readers’ attention each day and tell a
joke while moving the story forward?
60

61. 61

62. I didn’t have the advantage of artwork, so I had to duplicate the effect
with words alone. I spent a lot of time in the New York Public Library
across the street reading archives of comics dailies. Comic strip
artists can’t assume that their readers will see every issue published,
so story telling in the funny pages involved a lot of repetition. By the
same token, I couldn’t be sure that my readers would catch every
tweet posted. The last panel of the Friday strip was often the first
panel of Monday’s entry. I decided that I wouldn’t do a lot of repeating
as my Twitter history was readily available to my followers.
62

63. Twitter Storytelling
63

64. So Twitter storytelling forces considerations similar to advertising, and
also similar to daily comic strips. Many have written about the negative
influence of Twitter on spelling, grammar and punctuation.
I would suggest that Twitter detractors consider the gold in the Twitter
stream, not just the dross.
64

65. McLuhan in the Digital Age
65

66. McLuhan wrote that ―Technological environments are not merely
passive containers of people but are active processes that reshape
people and other technologies alike.‖ (The Gutenberg Galaxy p. 5)
Twitter encourages writing in aphorisms. It is said that King Solomon
was considered wise because he knew 3000 proverbs by heart and
could bring them to bear in his judicial deliberations. Proverbs were
typical of an oral culture where memory was the only means of
preserving knowledge.
Consider Twitter as a training ground for the proverbs of the Digital
Age. Perhaps in the future, it will become the norm to produce our
literature 140 characters at a time.
Speaking as a Twitter novelist, I certainly hope so.
66

67. 67

68. And now, with your indulgence, I will read Chapter 1 of Executive
Severance. To give you the full Twitter experience, I will display each
tweet on the screen behind me.
68

69. Executive Severance
Chapter 1: The Twitstery Begins
Willum Mortimus Granger was beside himself. In fact
when his body was found the top half was right next to
the bottom 117
Granger's body was split in two. "Well, we can rule out
suicide" said the coroner. "I rule out NOTHING!" I
replied 114
Selfbisection was not at the top of my list of likely
solutions. I hate ceding any ground when it comes to
crime deduction 122
"Maybe this was self inflicted. Then how do you explain
the other 3 1/2 victims just like this I have at the
morgue?" 117
69

70. Executive Severance
Chapter 1: The Twitstery Begins
So Granger wasn't the only one cut down in his prime.
"You said 3 1/2 victims. You have half a body?" "No.
Siammese twins." 123
Willum Mortimus Granger and 3 1/2 others (as per the
coroner) were dead, their bodies sliced in half. 100
I stared at Granger's lower torso. Marshall McLuhan
famously claimed that the wheel was an extension of
our feet. Now I got it! 127
Granger had owned a perfume concern, a blue coal mine
and two pickle factories. His company was called
Lavender Blue Dilly Dillly 129
70

71. Executive Severance
Chapter 1: The Twitstery Begins
Hit hard by the economic downturn, LBDD failed the
smell test, couldn't sink to new depths and finally
everything didn't go sour 128
A cloning pioneer, Granger had replaced every part of his
body. Calling his lab Body Parts R Us, he was literally a
self made man 129
If the economic downturn had hit Granger's cloning lab,
Body Parts R Us, like it did at LBDD, he could have lost
arm and a leg 126
I knew a lot about Granger. By chance I'd just read his NY
Times best-seller "100 Things You Need To Know About
Me Before I Die" 128
71

72. Executive Severance
Chapter 1: The Twitstery Begins
"I was born at a very young age." begins Granger's
autobiography, 100 Things..., "I was very close to my
mother at the time." 125
Born to a family of neo-vegans, Granger ate only oats til
age 17 when he became the first entrant to win the
Kentucky Derby without a horse. 140
A self-taught fly fisher, when Granger discovered the
sport's purpose was to catch fish, he released the flies
back into the wild 129
I looked at Granger's severed torso. Here... and here lay
the remains of an entrepreneur, athelete, scientist and
podcast mime. 127
72

73. Executive Severance
Chapter 1: The Twitstery Begins
Sure he was a failed entrepreneur, uncertain athlete,
questionable scientist. But he was undeniably a world
class podcast mime. 127
Who can forget Grangers's podcast masterpiece, "Man
Walking Against the Wind"? Or "Man Trapped in an
Invisible Cube"? 117
Now he was ready to perform his final mime podcast
"Man Silent as the Grave." Placing my cell next to his
torso, I ... 118
pressed RECORD. Willum Granger was dead because,
despite all his advantages, he couldn't be in two places
at the same time. 123
73

74. Executive Severance
Chapter 1: The Twitstery Begins
We stood a moment in a respectful silence which the
doctor broke asking "How can you do mime in a
podcast?" Just then my cell rang 130
Granger's last podcast would be ruined! I scooped up my
cell wondering when I uploaded "Torn Between Two
Lovers" as a ringtone. 127
My own phone was strangely silent. By the time I pried
the other cell phone from Granger's cold dead hand,
the music had stopped. 129
Looking for Caller ID I saw two things: Granger had been
on Twitter at the moment of his death and the battery
was almost dead. 127
74

75. Executive Severance
Chapter 1: The Twitstery Begins
Granger had been Tweeting when he died! This phone
was the Holy Grail, the Rosetta Stone, the Jeopardy
Daily Double of this case. 129
If Granger Tweeted his assailant's name, or some clue, I'd
wrap up this case and tackle those 3 1/2 other victims
at the morgue. 128
If Granger wrote "Hey, Larry from LBDD! What are you
doing here?" Or "Saw Vince from the lab" Those would
be a definite leads. 128
Granger had married twice, divorced 3 times. His last
wife had been really, really mad at him. Perhaps a she
would be fingered in a Tweet. 140
75

76. Executive Severance
Chapter 1: The Twitstery Begins
I needed to know three things. What was the motive for
the murder? What was the method? What was this
stuff I just stepped into? 129
"What is this stuff, tapioca?" "No," said the coroner
"That's his spleen." "It looks just like tapioca."
"Believe me, its not." 129
Doc's words reassured me. Tapioca always turns my
stomach. Wiping my shoe on Granger's shirt, I tapped
the phone on with my pen. 129
As the phone came to life the coroner scoffed "Do you
seriously believe you can solve this case by following
Granger on Twitter?" 129
76

77. Executive Severance
Chapter 1: The Twitstery Begins
"I won't follow his tweets to learn where he'll be. I
already know with grave certainty where he's
going to be from now on." 125
"I'll solve this murder not by tweeting forward, but
by retweeting backward," I hit ENTER and
Granger's final Tweet appeared: 125
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaa 140
aaaaaaaaaaa 11
77

78. Executive Severance
Chapter 1: The Twitstery Begins
Either Granger wanted his followers to know he suffered
an extremely slow, painful death, or his finger got stuck
on the "a" key. 129
"aaaaaaaa...?" said the coroner. "That's it?" "It may be a
code of some kind." I replied "All I have to do is figure
out the key" 129
The coroner continued, "Facing imminent death, as a final
act Granger logs onto Twitter and tweets 'aaaaaaa…' to
his followers?" 128
"Does that description do justice to the scenario you're
painting here?" "Maybe we should look at his next-to-
last tweet." 122
78

79. Executive Severance
Chapter 1: The Twitstery Begins
The coroner was getting on my nerves. I should put him
on my suspects list. Once again I tapped the cell to
view Granger's tweet: 129
"Stomach unsettled" Granger had tweeted, "I guess that
tapioca didn't go down well." I glared at the coroner.
He just shrugged. 129
The lab team was done and wanted to put Granger into
body bags. His phone too. There wouldn't be another
tweet out of either. 126
79

80. ?
Any
Questions?
80

81. My Other Links
Twitter RKBs_Twitstery
Whale Fire www.executiveseverance.blogspot.com
A Model Media Ecologist
www.robertkblechman.blogspot.com
Other Sites
The Savage Mind on Madison Avenue
http://savagemindmadave.blogspot.com/
The Heart of the Matter
http://rkbheartmatter.blogspot.com/
81