Is Twitter Shortening Our Attention Spans? - Nick Douglas October 14, 2009

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Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/09/24/Twitter_Wit_Nick_Douglas_and_Guests

Nick Douglas, author of Twitter Wit, defends Twitter against accusations that it is contributing to shortened attention spans. Douglas draws from the example of a user named "shitmydadsays" to demonstrate how people are using the medium to create continuous story lines and build characters.

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In Twitter Wit, Nick Douglas has collected the best tweets out there. Douglas has assembled these aphorisms to champion the wit and wisdom that is shared among Twitter users.

Funny, astute, and perfectly economical, these 140-character pieces of perspective reveal how Twitter users can be philosophical, hilarious, and literary in a way that appeals to our contemporary (short) attention span. With submissions ranging from quotidian vignettes like "I bet in Sweden the Ikea instructions are in English," to bumper sticker-type quips like "I think the bird of love is the dove. My husband thinks it's the swallow," Twitter Wit has something in it that we can all relate to.

And with contributors ranging from celebrities like Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, Rainn Wilson, Russell Brand and John Hodgman to regular people with previously unappreciated sharp tongues, readers are sure to find new Twitter users to follow.

Featuring a foreword by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, this authorized anthology of the thousand most clever and memorable tweets relates the diversity of human experience in hilarious bite-sized pieces. - Booksmith

Nick Douglas is a technology writer and humorist known for bringing a sarcastic viewpoint to the usually dry world of tech journalism.

The founding editor of Valleywag, Gawker Media's blog about Silicon Valley, Douglas has also written for Wired, Slate, and the Huffington Post, among others. Douglas boasts over 9,000 followers on Twitter, making him one of the top 200 users on the site. He lives in New York City. Visit his website www.toomuchnick.com.