Twitter Politics

In our society part of keeping up to date with political events includes receiving updates from social media platforms. The interesting thing about these forums, especially Twitter, is that they require short and concise messages. For younger followers like myself this is ideal. Everything is reduced to a soundbite and then if interested in more, the reader can seek out the full story or longer comments.

Upon reading this article however I began to question the use of social media by presidents and official dignitaries. Hugo Chavez is a most interesting politician in my personal opinion. I think it would almost be a great test to limit him to 140 words to express his various sentiments. However, he joins a group of other country leaders that try to get the message out using Twitter. While this reaches the masses and dispenses information quickly, I think it can also take away from these highly esteemed positions. It's good to remember that are leaders are among the citizens. But, on the other hand, I find the thought of President Obama updating his twitter status (I'm well aware he is not the one physically doing it, but for this image's sake...) a little trivial.

What are your thoughts? Is Twitter a yes or no for our leaders? Will you follow Hugo Chavez? Will he be able to limit his updates to 140 words?