Graphic+by+Karl+Enghofer

Graphic by Karl Enghofer

Should:

Twitter users may have noticed recently that  media show up as a part of a Tweet, as opposed to as a link to follow.

It may not seem like a big deal, but the underlying message here is that people today don’t want to read.

Twitter has never been a social media known for preserving the written word. The fact it limits users to just 140 characters is proof of that.

Supplementing tweets with links to photos and videos has always been a useful aspect of Twitter, but text was still the primary way it conveyed messages, however short that text may be.

It’s no secret the written word has been suffering lately, but the more we let it die, the worse off we are.

As a society, we should be insulted that yet another social media site is trying to dumb itself down for our sake.

Multimedia is an important part of how we consume news, but we can’t neglect words altogether.

Shouldn’t:

Whenever I see that any one with the last name Kardashian is in the news for anything, I can’t help but roll my eyes.

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are engaged. Say it with me now: why should we care?!

We shouldn’t. We really shouldn’t. I promised myself I would never do a Kardashian story for this column because it would just be too easy. Last week, as it was nearly impossible to shut out the stories of reality TV’s royal engagement, I couldn’t help myself.

Let this be a blanket statement about why we shouldn’t pay any attention to the Kardashians.

None of them has done anything of substantial value for us as a society.

What irks me about this engagement getting so much attention, though, is that I think Kim Kardashian has done more to disgrace the sanctity of marriage than any same-sex couple.

Her 72-day publicity stunt of a first marriage is the real assault on the institution.