I was one of those note-passing kids in my earlier school years.I admit it. Whether it was a match of tic-tac-toe or the much more exciting game of dots or just some random bit of info I found funny or interesting, note passing prevailed in those years.It was nice. All that mattered was how small you could fold the paper. There were no restrictions, no rules. Loose-leaf gave ultimate freedom, whether folded into paper airplanes, footballs or simply balled up. It could be wide-ruled or college-ruled (we apparently write smaller with age). Didn’t matter.But those days are gone. Well, probably not. But the electronic form of note swapping — Twitter — seems to be taking over the world.This great week in Omaha has been Tweeted — yeah, it’s a verb now — as has the revolution in Iran, Shaq’s thoughts on becoming an underwear model and, oh, anything else on the planet. CNN begs its viewers to keep up with its Tweet, and a Google search of Twitter (imagine telling your grandparents that phrase) returns “about 600,000,000” results.Umm. Wow?Twitter is essentially a mini-blog that allows users to post 140 characters at a time as often as they like. It is often likened to the Facebook status feature, and it’s used for a variety of things and sparked a variety of opinions.For example, Slate Magazine’s John Dickerson thinks it is exactly what the Republican Party needs, and he actually might be right. As he says, “for Republicans, there’s an added benefit to Twitter: If they can make their case in 140 characters, they’re probably on the road to solving their message problem.”Unfortunately, politicians are still wary of the immediate ability to vent and therefore project unseemly emotions to the world. Take Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, one of Dickerson’s examples of Twitter’s problem. He recently Tweeted “Pres Obama while u sightseeing in Paris u said ‘time to delivr on healthcare’ When you are a ‘hammer’ u think evrything is NAIL I’m no NAIL.” And while this may be a valid point, this certainly was not the most valid, mature or, most importantly, professional way to present a political opinion. Newt Gingrich has also been guilty of offering short, embarrassing opinions on Twitter, namely calling Sonia Sotomayor racist.Again, these men’s points may be valid, but Twitter is probably not the place to remove vowels from your message and offer immediate feelings to the world. This is, after all, the same device Shaq uses to give away basketball tickets.Politicians aren’t the only ones with Twitter woes. The University of Tennesee’s football coach Lane Kiffin violated NCAA recruiting rules by naming an uncommitted player on his Twitter, according to Deadspin.Then there’s also the problem of whether these accounts are who they claim to be. St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa sued Twitter for emotional distress when someone pretended to be him.All this, of course, amid the sea of pointlessly minute details of teenager and college students’ lives.Then, out of nowhere, the Web site seems to have become the sounding board of the revolts in Iran. And it’s not just a media circus, as it might seem at first glance. In fact, “Thousands of users have colored their avatars — the pictures that go next to their user names — green to show support for the Iranian opposition party candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi,” according to the Chicago Tribune.So what is Twitter’s purpose? Is it to start revolutions, gain votes or just for John Mayer and Perez Hilton to squabble? I imagine it’s a little bit of everything.It’s a strangely powerful tool that has become one of the media’s favorite sources — I won’t pretend like this is the death of journalism or the English language, but come on. It’s getting ridiculous.The most important thing to realize is information, feelings, stories and anecdotes can now be offered to millions of people without having to be hired by a newspaper or a television station. All that’s needed is 30 seconds and 140 characters, and you can wreck your life or at least create a news story. But who knows where it will land when the excitement wears off.All I do know is the days of note passing will soon be as outdated as 8-tracks. Especially if One Laptop per Child, a company attempting to spread laptops among both affluent and poverty-stricken children, gets its way.Soon, grammar school kids with their shiny new laptops will be Tweeting “Does Susie like Bobby? (little kids’ names all end in a hard “e”), circle one of the following: A) Yes B) No C) Maybe.”But those poor kids won’t be able to circle anything.Travis Andrews is a 21-year-old English senior from Metairie.
 
 
—–Contact Travis Andrews at [email protected]