The clinical psychologist Oliver James has his reservations. “Twittering stems from a lack of identity. It’s a constant update of who you are, what you are, where you are. Nobody would Twitter if they had a strong sense of identity.”

“We are the most narcissistic age ever,” agrees Dr David Lewis, a cognitive neuropsychologist and director of research based at the University of Sussex. “Using Twitter suggests a level of insecurity whereby, unless people recognise you, you cease to exist. It may stave off insecurity in the short term, but it won’t cure it.”

For Alain de Botton, author of Status Anxiety and the forthcoming The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, Twitter represents “a way of making sure you are permanently connected to somebody and somebody is permanently connected to you, proving that you are alive. It’s like when a parent goes into a child’s room to check the child is still breathing. It is a giant baby monitor.”

It’s become something of a rarity ;)

It’s rather perplexing to think people would be bothered by this. The only difference to any artist interviews or blog or press releases is that the PR person isn’t involved. Most artists (except intense sci-fi authors…) want to engage with their audience. I dont really like the word “fans”. We’re all just people. It’s not like we care what flavour ice cream the artist is eating, we’re more into what mics are used and how the new album is coming along. We like the reflections of an artist we admire as food for thought in our own artistic process. This is wholesome stuff. We’re all trying to make good art, and sharing our experiences is a good way to keep motivated.

This is not however, reading a glossy gossip magazine full of invented stories or carefully leaked PR babble. I follow the Imogen Heap twitters as i like her production and i’m currently trying to finish off music myself. The “fun” part of writing is kind of done and im up to the tiring mix downs, so its nice to glance over the various other artists (some of them close friends) who pop the odd creative thought on Twitter. Imogen’s posts are nice enough as i was fascinated with the last two albums. Its kind of like a “inside the studio” article, but in real time.

Now excuse me, i totally just ate a hamburger and i have to tweet about it. No not really. And yes, its sad i have to say “not really”… you crazy Twitterers :P

I don’t think it’s creepy at all, in Immi’s case at least. I have no idea what other purposes Twitter is being used for and don’t want to even imagine.

I’m very grateful that she takes the time to feed her fans pieces of her life. And I still don’t get how she can follow over 10,000 twitter-ers herself. I worry about that part.

-Hakim

I might be preempting Peter here, but Wire to the Ear just pointed out an unofficial Ableton twitter feed the other day:

http://www.wiretotheear.com/2009/02/01/follow-ableton-tweets-on-twitter-for-tips/

And, Stretta also recently listed a bunch of twitters to follow:

http://stretta.blogspot.com/2009/02/twitters-you-should-be-following.html

So, you know, if your RSS feed was looking slim, this should give you plenty to read.