A coveted job writing for the New York Times op-ed page is considered one of the most exclusive gigs in journalism. And with good reason: the unparalleled intellect and experience of their columnists are simply without equal. Where else will you find some middle-aged dad with the wit and bravery necessary to proclaim: hey, I don't care for this "Twitter" thing?

Middle-aged white guys writing New York Times columns about the internet that would have sounded musty and cliched years ago? Is Bill Keller back on the beat? Ho ho ho, not this time, my friends. Joe Nocera is getting in on this action now. After all, if there's anything that screams "Good Use of Valuable Media Real Estate Read Closely by Influencers Around the World," it is "Telling People What You, a Person Who Does Not Use Twitter or Have Any Particular Insight Into its Larger Implications for Media, Journalism, Communications, or the World at Large, Think About Twitter." A topic that never gets stale! Put the kids to bed, pour yourself a nice drink, sit by the fireplace, and just focus on absorbing this wisdom.

With its 140-character limit, Twitter exacerbates our society-wide attention deficit disorder: Nothing can be allowed to take more than a few seconds to write or read. Kedrosky may prefer Twitter, but I really miss his thoughtful blog. I recently heard Dick Costolo, Twitter’s chief executive, bragging that the pope now has a Twitter account. Once, popes wrote encyclicals; now they tweet.

Not to mention all these coffee shops with their "grande" this and "venti" that. Can I get a regular coffee, for crying out loud?

[NYT. Photo: Doc Searls/ Flickr]