Warning: dork-out session ahead. Fellow bloggers and nyerds and Christopher Walken fans, this is for more for you. For the rest of you… please just consider this a tiny lesson in using social media wisely.

Remember how micro-blogging sites, specifically Twitter which limits messages to 140 characters, are always coming under fire for ruining the ways we communicate? Well, we have found our savior to lead us out of this darkness and his name is Christopher Walken. His Twitter account brings the medium to new heights and into the light. Some of the best are posted below, but you can always go to his account and check it out yourself.

You might be wondering, “Christopher Walken? Isn’t he someone that frat bros are fans of when they want to show they have an edgy side to their personalities? Why is he a genius? Why don’t you follow someone with legit alternative cool cred like David Lynch? I bet his twitters will blow your mind.” (I know. You are not wondering any of these things.)

Ok, so yes, David Lynch Twitters. But his tweets suck. It’s basically the LA weather report interspersed with bad new age “thoughts of the day.” Not something I would ever waste my time reading (which is a lie, I do follow David Lynch). Granted, David Lynch has actually confirmed that the account is truly his via a YouTube video. With David Lynch, you are getting a confirmed authentic Web 2.0 experience when you follow him.

So, truth be told  there has yet to be any verification that this is actually Christopher Walken. But he elevates the 140 character medium to nearly literary heights. Every time he chooses to communicate with his current 73,000 followers, he composes a micro-short story, material along the lines of Amy Hemple’s one sentence short story, “Memoir.” It’s absurd, it’s narrative, he keeps his true life private, and he proves the artistic merit of a form of new media often blamed for dumbing down the public. Kudos Christopher Walken (or whoever Twitters in your name).

Which brings me to my point here, which is “are we finally figuring out the Internet?” I’ve been in countless arguments with people defending my job and my hobbies surrounding new media arguing the concept of “the medium is the message” in relation to the Internet. To me, Christopher Walken’s Twitter offers a look at a new kind of thinking — that perhaps Internet communication, often short form and designed for a shorter attention span, is currently not a revolution in how much we say, but how we say it. Walken shows that the focus for better online communication lies in excellent editing, something we can all probably use a lesson on in this age of over-sharing.

Then again, maybe all of this is just for d-bags.

tumblr. – The Documentary (by boringloser.com) from DaveAOK on Vimeo.

3 Responses to “Christopher Walken Is An Unexpected Absurdist Mastermind”

1. Arch Says:
   March 24th, 2009 at 3:33 pm

   @: ‘Christopher Walken’ follows mostly comedians and Penn Jillette, so fake! #missing_the_point

   [reply this comment]

   Colin reply on March 24, 2009:

   Good observation! Whoever the hell writes it, it’s definitely the best decision of my life to follow it. It’s so well written.

2. Eeez Says:
   March 31st, 2009 at 1:51 pm

   god i love amy hemple.

   [reply this comment]

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