• by ebony , October 15, 2010

Okay, we’ve all done it. Ranted on Twitter in the heat of the moment and then realized soon after that our complaints and foul thoughts were better off left in our heads.

(The little text box can be so enticing at times. Begging you to answer...LOL)

Last month, Nas (one of my favorite rappers) took it to the street when he decided to inform his fans and followers that his highly anticipated album the Lost Tapes 2 would be coming soon. His label Def Jam didn't do anything on their end to confirm that this was factual. It appears as if they have no intention on releasing the album.

Nas reacted last week by writing an email to the label where he very informally addressed several discrepancies. He also alluded to the fact that in just one Twitter update he could have thousands of people protesting outside the record company’s headquarters.

I don’t know how possible that would be but imagine, a huge crowd coming together to demand that their favorite artist is treated fairly all based on the strength of one Twitter status. I just found it amazing.

With this kind of power we could very well (in very small stages of course) change how Big Business does, business. Consumers are affected everyday in ways that they may not even immediately identify but when we aren’t happy we don’t hesitate at all to let all our friends know about it. The advent of platforms such as Twitter and Facebook just make this action even more instant, widespread, and also permanent.

A search on Google for myself (yes. I Google myself from time to time) revealed, of course, my Facebook profile but my Twitter account as well. I also found a few sites that apparently scour the net and hoard Twitter feeds. I don’t understand the utility of that, but I do recognize the severity of having your thoughts available anytime and possibly anywhere forever. Not even the delete button can protect you.

A would be Cisco employee tweeted that he was excited about the ‘fatty paycheck’ but not so thrilled about being employed at such a boring and unpleasant place. As soon as he found out the error in his ways, he quickly deleted the post and set his profile to private. But as a wise woman once said: the internet is written in ink so it was of course way too late.

I guess the moral here is to continue to be discreet, or as discreet as possible, or...

just put a fake name on your profile and hope that nobody connects the two.