The answer is 140, not 42

In today's posting, I want to wrap up a few more points on the social networking revolution, That 140-character phenomenon, Twitter, in particular.

I'll stay with the foot-in-the-mouth disease first. There was this hard-to-miss apology advert in today's ST (15 Nov). This person, from a  fitness gym, had to declare that the following statements he had made about another gym were "patently false":

"xxxx is closing down soon"
"xxxx might survive one more year".

There are no details but I wonder if these statements were made via SMS or Tweets, or on Facebook -- to an audience possibly wider than intended, as happened to Mr Chambers (in yesterday's post).

Once you hit that "send" button, there's nothing you can do to retrieve your message.

Why do they do it? In last Saturday's New Paper (13 Nov), a Secondary 4 schoolboy taking the O-levels was reported to have -- using his camera-phone -- taken a photo of an exam paper before it started and uploaded it onto Twitter, 10 minutes before the exam started. He said he only took one picture, of the cover.

It is against the exam rules to bring any mobile phone into the exam room. In this boy's case, he was allowed to sit the paper in a room with only one other student. He has a condition in which he makes involuntary movements and sounds.

So why did he do it, even if the uploaded photo was only the cover, and no exam question was photographed? He said he did it "for the fun of it" and because he was "bored". He added that he was fully aware of the possible consequences, including a duck's egg (my phrase here) for the paper.

What else did he say? This, among others: "I won't do something like this again. I just take it as an experience, a learning point, and just grow up from there."

As in Mr Chambers case, people will be divided on their views about his action and his attitude. But why do I get the feeling this boy will go far in life?

On a lighter note, a Norwegian porn star tweeted on the brouhaha over an Indonesian Minister from a conservative Muslim party and the handshake he had with US First Lady Michelle Obama recently. The minister, reacting on Twitter (but of course) to criticisms (on Twitter, spot on) that he should not have shaken a woman's hand, said Mrs Obama had initiated it.

The United States-based porn star then weighed in, tweeting that the minister's hands were free to roam all over her. She added: "Come to the USA and shake anything you want!!!" (yes, there were three exclamation marks).

That's the power of Twitter -- the "right" situation gets you into the media spotlight, and to a vast audience!

So much so that recently freed Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Ky plans to Tweet to reach out to the younger generation.

So, if you are a fan of The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy, the answer is not 42. It is 140.