Does Twitter Make You a Tastemaker?

Check out this excerpt from a recent blog post over at 4 Cryin Out Loud:

In the 2000 school of media– I know that visibility is everything. Writers want to be more popular than the artists/celebs they cover. We create websites using only our names. We make videos where we essentially interview ourselves. We bustle around town with equipment we don’t know how to use to be seen and “on the scene.” We participate in meaningless roundtable discussions that never lead anywhere, and serve no purpose–other than of course, to show that we were invited to the meaningless roundtable discussion.

Twitter has become the perfect medium for us media “tastemakers.”

We can participate in silly music related debates (debates that in no way have any bearing on the actual state of the industry, but serve only to illustrate that we can write 140 characters about whoever the rapper up for discussion is). We can articulate just how much we know, and how quickly we can discreetly google what we don’t know during an especially heated discussion. We can illustrate how smart we are. We can offer brazenly sarcastic commentary on every song that leaks or every ill-advised email blast we receive. After all, how else will people know how many unwanted emails we get per day, or how many people want us to listen to their music?¬† We can brag about where we are, and where you aren’t. We can tell you where we just landed.

It hit me. Without Twitter, how will other “tastemakers” know that I am still “tastemaking?” How will they know I am witty and sarcastic? How will they know that I’m alive?! I mean, sure they can read my bylines or blogs, but…how will they really know if they are unable to read what I’m #nowplaying every hour on the hour– and that my musical taste (and therefore personality) is eclectic, yet grounded, well-informed but approachable? They won’t. That’s how.

My worth, I’ve found–both personally and professionally is synonymous with my Twitter Page.

And my Twitter Page no longer exists.

Therefore, I am… not.

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Thought provoking, at the very least.¬† Drop a comment below and let us know if you agree, you don’t, or if you even care.