Of twits and tweets

Any kid using the excuse that the Mayan calendar “ate my homework” has lost his leverage. The world didn’t end on 12/21/12, but things are getting curiouser as what was supposed to be mankind’s last year on all calendars trickles to an end.

The pope is now tweeting. The archbishops of Canterbury and York tweeted their Yuletide sermons. And the queen of England gave her Christmas message in 3D.

Pope Benedict XVI’s first use of Twitter (he’s @Pontifex in the tweet world) went out on Dec. 12. Since Twitter messages are limited to 140 characters, full sermons can’t go in one tweet. At least the subject is serious, unlike many tweets.

A 2009 analysis by a market research firm showed that more than 40 percent of tweets can be described as “pointless babble.” Another 10 percent were either self-promotion or spam.

Hard to say in what category to place the millions of tweets about the Last Day on Earth that turned out to be just another Friday.

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