Microblogs or Social Voyeurs ?

Nick Carr having a go at Twitter et al:

Twitter is often referred to as a "micro-blogging platform," but twittering seems more like antiblogging, or at least an escape - retreat? - from blogging. Blogging is the soapbox in the park, the shout in the street; Twitter is the whispering of a clique. You can easily see why it's compelling, but you can just as easily see its essential creepiness. (At least it's up-front about its creepiness, using the term "follower" in place of the popular euphemism "friend.")

He then comes over a Bit Philosophical:

Yet if Nietzsche's typewriter pushed him further into the aphoristic mode and set the stage for some of his greatest works, might not Twitter be an empty cage awaiting its resident genius? It's worth remembering, in any case, one of Nietzsche's aphorisms: "Talking about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself." That's a tweet worth twittering.

It must be said that the term "microblog" somewhat overeggs the pudding here - "chatgroup with pictures" is more like it. One of these days it'll have threading, sorting and persistence and then it'll be email with pictures. One thing is different on Twitter though - talking about yourself will in no way obscure you, that digital footprint is with us forever and easily scrape-able, mine-able and collate-able.

Not so much ambient intimacy but prurient interest then. But then again, where is the (dis)ambiguity?