Gin, Television, and Social Surplus

I just read Gin, Television, and Social Surplus, the transcript of a talk given by Clay Shirky at the Web 2.0 conference in April. I'm abashed to identify with the villain of the piece (well, maybe she's less villainous and more clueless and slightly hostile) -- the television producer who listened to his thoughts about how social media are changing society forever and marveled, "Where do people find the time?"

For example, Twitter leaves me cold. I can't imagine why anyone would feel the need to post 140 characters' worth of stream-of-consciousness non sequiturs. Even worse, from the standpoint of me trying not to be left completely behind by societal evolution, I can't understand why anyone *else* would want to *read* someone's Twitter feed. It seems absurd.

There's no getting around it. I am officially crotchety.