Meanland extract – SXSW: forecasting how we will read, write and create
‘It puts you in the position of a journalist, in a way’, said Margaret Atwood late last year when asked how the Internet has changed her relationship to her readers. ‘You become the journalist of yourself. Which is really weird.’
Margaret Atwood has not only enthusiastically embraced life online, but has also gone one step further, into innovation, into throwing parties in her kitchen that are live-streamed on Twitter, iPhones and the web. Atwood is a huge Twitter fan, declaring that ‘Twittering’ is the most fun to be had on the Internet. (Twitter creator Jack Dorsey feels similarly about Atwood.)
Ostensibly, many people are enjoying life on Twitter and it is undeniable that Twitter has changed the way in which people read and authors write. Twitter has, in effect, changed the way 32.1 million people read and write online.