Twitter — the good and the maybe not-so-good

Not everyone who returns here regularly to read what has been written may be familiar with Texts from Last Night. In fact, I’d guess most readers over the age of 40 aren’t familiar with it.

If you are, you probably follow it on Twitter or Facebook.

I saw the post above on Wednesday. It’s typical of what shows up several times each day from Texts from Last Night.

An outdated Wikipedia page says TFLN is a “living document of twentysomething life” that features “many blackout drinking, sex, and vomit stories,” along with discussions about morality.

Many of these texts are funny, but I often wonder just how truthful they are. Methinks there is a fair amount of exaggeration in them.

At first, I was especially inclined to call B.S. on this text. I’m just not sure how many teachers or professors would do this. But there are lecherous educators out there, I suppose, and getting your students to write these kinds of stories could be a more discrete way to get your jollies and just as titillating as reading the Penthouse Forum — if it’s even still published. (And while we’re on the subject, I once hired a reporter who claimed to have worked for Penthouse Forum, an experience that he never made sound particularly exciting.)

But my takeaway thought after reading some of these texts is to be grateful no one thought to capture and publish the drunken anonymous prank telephone calls of a generation ago. And I’m really glad text messaging didn’t exist back then.

This and that …

Positive tweets: If you’d like to know more about a more productive way a 17-year-old junior at Iowa City West High School is using Twitter, check out this video story from the Today show.

It seems simple to me: Just drink water.

Hello, my name is Chris. And I am a book nerd. Thank you to my friend, HP, for pointing out this link.

And finally, a Quick Hit: House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence …

Let that soak in for a second.

If ever there was an oxymoron, could there be a better one than House Intelligence Committee? Especially when it is called the SELECT committee and it includes Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn.

With that kind of membership, how select and how intelligent can it really be?

God bless her district in Minnesota for re-electing this woman. It helps keep the national spotlight off Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa.

Thank you and keep up the good work: Wednesday, I wrote about the lack of dialogue on this blog and encouraged more of you to begin posting comments. It prompted 11 readers to post 19 comments.

That’s a good start. I encourage them to keep it up today and for other readers to join in the fun