There was quite a buzz when, a couple of weeks ago, the (real life) people behind the twittering of several characters from AMC's Mad Men finally revealed their identities to their many thousand fans:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123439568330074869.html?mod=article-outset-box
I don't Twitter at all... But although I'm a big fan of Mad Men, if/when I start to tweet (?) I wouldn't follow the tweets of Mad Men characters. Probably.
But I think I can see myself following the tweets of other characters (if they existed). I can imagine some fantastic dialogue from Jane Austen heroines, for example. Or I can imagine myself following the tweets of long-dead historical characters - what would Thomas Jefferson be tweeting about today? Or I may even follow a whole new story - a murder mystery tweeted in real time? Great subway reading to catch up on and check in with throughout the day.
New social "technology" always complicates social interaction. When I studied Jane Austen (obviously pre-MBA track), we studied the dynamics of letter-writing - the time delay between when letters were written and when they arrived, the manner in which they were sent and delivered, the dynamics of who could or did read them apart from the addressee, the importance of saving them for reevaluation.... were all important plot dynamics.
There is good literature about - and written through - email. And an art is developing around the Facebook status update. Twitter is a new frontier --- although maybe it's too distant and too weird, and won't last enough to evolve?
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