Daily Twitter Links for Thursday 6 December 2012

Here are today's must-reads:

1. I quit Twitter for a month and it completely changed my thinking about mostly everything: 

I surprised some people when I said I was taking November off Twitter.

I’ve been using Twitter since July 2006 (user #1568!) with almost completely unbroken usage since late 2007, so that reaction is understandable—most especially from those in my life who consider me addicted to my iPhone.

Twitter has done a lot of really great things for me. I’ve met a huge number of people I care about because of it, and a good number of those have become coworkers and colleagues—even closest friends. In fact, I’d say that outside of my family, most of “my people” in real life are folks I met on Twitter. 

So what does it look like when shutting it off? The answer surprised me. I thought maybe I was addicted and that it would be a very hard experience, but it wasn’t. It was, however, a very educational experience.

It’s important to note that, for me, there wasn’t some trigger event. In a snap decision, I just had this feeling that came to me the second I walked in the door one evening—it was kind of a voice saying, “yep, done for now.” I felt completely at peace about it as I deleted all my social media apps off my phone, laptop, and iPad.

I must re-emphasize the word peace.

2. Train Wreck: The New York Post's Subway Cover:

“It all happened so fast.”

That’s what R. Umar Abbasi, a freelance photographer for The New York Post, said of the fatal subway incident on Monday that he caught with his camera. One man threw another into harm’s way, causing him to be run over by an oncoming train. This last part happened in the blink of a shutter.

But the decision to put the image on the The Post’s cover and frame it with a lurid headline that said “this man is about to die”? That part didn’t happen quickly. The treatment of the photo was driven by a moral and commercial calculus that was sickening to behold. 

3. I’m a Lesbian and I’m Never Getting Married. Why Are You?:

As soon as New York approved marriage equality in June 2011, I started hearing the question. Straight friends posed it with an air of excitement and fellow gays with trepidation: “Are you getting married?”

Although the word NO springs immediately to mind, I’ve learned to pause and stretch out a “Naaaah” that expresses hesitation and uncertainty. Faux hesitation and uncertainty. Because I am not getting married. Never. No way. Not happening. Not me.

I don’t want to offend anyone who has chosen to say “I do,” and I certainly don’t want to dis the activists who worked so hard to get legislation and referenda passed. I celebrated the Election Day victories in Washington, Maine, Maryland, and Minnesota, but I wouldn’t have chosen marriage equality as a political priority, though I of course believe our relationships should be treated with the same legitimacy as heterosexual marriages when it comes to rights like immigration and Social Security inheritance. I’ve since come to realize the gay marriage battle’s strategic genius, however—marriage is such a conservative institution and such a basic civil right that selectively denying it to one group of citizens eventually seems (and is) undeniably hateful.

Still, it’s not for me. My resistance to marriage isn’t about avoiding commitment or responsibility. I’ve been in a blissfully happy monogamous relationship for going on 16 years. We own property and are raising a cat together. I just don’t want to be a wife—and I don’t want a wife of my own.

These are some of the other things I've been tweeting about today:

• it is almost time for bed, i think: "The Unsolved Mystery of Why You Just Yawned" http://pjblack.me/RAVKG9
• "Teaching support frozen: Go8" http://pjblack.me/RBiu8U #highered
• "'Friends with Benefits' Practice Safer Sex" http://pjblack.me/YjcX9W
• interesting post from jack shafer: "The Daily didn’t fail–Rupert gave up" http://pjblack.me/RDKhFP 
• "Stan Grant joins SKY News" http://pjblack.me/SzXdcV
• "How universities performed in ERA 2012" http://pjblack.me/RDHWL5 #highered
• "When Movie Posters Are Art, Not Commerce" http://pjblack.me/RATKNW
• "The Hipster Lit Flow Chart" http://pjblack.me/SwXpcK
• "Technology giants at war: Another game of thrones" http://pjblack.me/RATn6h
• better read those terms of service again: "Tweets of rage: does free speech on the internet actually exist?" http://pjblack.me/TNwsAb
• a thoughtful post from david carr: "Train Wreck: The New York Post's Subway Cover" http://pjblack.me/RDAOhP
• "Student group to take Facebook to task in Irish court" http://pjblack.me/TEhFeO
• vote now for the @4ZZZ hot 100 of 2012 http://pjblack.me/SzOl75
• "Writer Sued for his Twitter Followers Settles Case" http://pjblack.me/RDy4AO #kkb175
• "Apple’s ITunes Would Be One of World’s Biggest Media Companies" http://pjblack.me/SzMLlI/cc @shaneogden
• "The 45 Most Powerful Images Of 2012" http://pjblack.me/RAQ4vO
• i wonder if this is the same in australia: "If You Don't Watch Sports, TV Is a Huge Rip-Off (So, How Do We Fix It?)" http://pjblack.me/RDwJtS
• not everyone wants to get married: "I’m a Lesbian and I’m Never Getting Married. Why Are You?" http://pjblack.me/VxVLfk
• "Sketching Out 'Psycho': Production Storyboards From 15 Beloved Films" http://pjblack.me/TEhJet
• this is so true: "Newspapers as Luxury Goods: Murdoch and Sulzberger Have More in Common Than It Appears" http://pjblack.me/RAPCO6
• something to think about: "I quit Twitter for a month and it completely changed my thinking about mostly everything" http://pjblack.me/RAP2zT
• "Silencing the Voices of Militants on Twitter" http://pjblack.me/TEhJuO
• "Banned From Making Money, These YouTubers Share Their Stories" http://pjblack.me/TEhJLm
• "Could Oswald the Lucky Rabbit have been bigger than Mickey?" http://pjblack.me/SHk1XY
• but it still doesn't have push notifications: "Twitterrific 5 review: terrific new interface, some old flaws" http://pjblack.me/RDcDQt
• this is interesting: "The Science Behind Gifting (and Regifting)" http://pjblack.me/SwRWTj
• australia is creative: "How people in various countries describe themselves on LinkedIn" http://pjblack.me/TEhznm
• "Blogger Jailed After Password-Hacking Ecuador's President" http://pjblack.me/RAMS3c
• "Visualizing Birth and Death Rates" http://pjblack.me/TNww2O
• "Prismatic gets $15M to build a recommendation engine for the world" http://pjblack.me/Sz7eqF
• a tumblr just about missed high fives http://pjblack.me/Sz7iXA
• "The Death of 'Near Death': Even If Heaven Is Real, You Aren’t Seeing It" http://pjblack.me/RyHP3f
• "The 15 Most Overpriced Gadgets Of All Time" http://pjblack.me/SwREfk
• this is frustrating: "Twitter and Instagram clash again, this time over photos in tweets" http://pjblack.me/SyHb2K
• that's a relief, i guess: "Hunter Moore's Gross New Site Will Be Slightly Less Gross than Advertised" http://pjblack.me/SuARJM
• "Internet Petitions White House to Build a Death Star" http://pjblack.me/RAMB0e
• although this is british focused, it has some relevance for australia: "The making of the 21st century public servant" http://pjblack.me/RAMqSL
• "How to retweet without needing a lawyer" http://pjblack.me/RyMPF5
• a significant number of young americans use social networking in the bathroom: "The next noise you hear is NOT a tweet" http://pjblack.me/SuBanS
• "2012 Year in Review - Yahoo! News" http://pjblack.me/RyI5iS

Follow me on Twitter @peterjblack.

And you can get my latest links anytime on my Rebelmouse social media front page.