Twitter as social commentary?

There is a great article in the June 14 edition of Time magazine by James Poniewozik called "The Soul of Twit." The article looks at Twitter as a new literary art form. Here's a link to the article: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1993863,00.html

I don't currently subscribe to any Twitter feeds because I thought it was just silly. How much can you say in 140 characters? However, this article takes a look at Twitter as almost a form of poetry or haiku. The author in particular looks at how Twitter can serve as a form of social commentary. He points out the recent creation of the fake BP "Global PR" Twitter site and its hysterical Tweets that cut right to the heart of the tragedy of the oil spill and the hypocrisy of the BP media machine. Here's a great zinger from the fake BP account: "Due to public outcry, our 'Spill or Be Spilled' flash game will be taken off our BP Kidz Klub website." So funny.

This relates to what we are discussing in LIS 2600 in that as documents become digitized and more publishing moves entirely online, we're seeing how the Web is creating entire new forms of literature. Anyone is a legitimate writer now and blogs and Twitter accounts are becoming more and more of a legitimate voice for millions of people. Why did I waste my time getting a Journalism degree?

How will libraries deal with this? Will we need to catalog blogs and Tweets in the future? How on earth would that be done?

I just hope that traditional, long-form books and novels do not disappear entirely in the future. Will future generations be able to think critically and express themselves in anything longer than a text message?