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Lady Gaga - Source: Reuters -
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Hold the presses. Lady Gaga has quit Twitter .
So too has Justin Timberlake, Alicia Keys and Kim Kardashian.
Whatever shall we do?
How will the world survive a whole day without Twitter's essential insights into celebrities' lives?
Without JT recommending we listen to Matt Morris' new album, or Gaga showing off her Thanksgiving casserole, or Miss Kardashian plugging her latest book signing?
I appreciate the social media blackout is in the name of charity - to support World AIDS Day, which is a genuinely deserving cause.
But depriving the world of something they neither need nor want is not the most effective use of their time.
Any one of those celebrities could raise thousands of dollars by taking a night out of their lives to attend a fundraiser. Or perform a charity concert.
Kardashian has posted 12 Twitter updates in the past 24 hours. Let's say each one takes two minutes to post. That's 24 minutes of Twitter time just for today.
That's nearly three hours of Twitter a week. Or 12 hours a month.
Of course, Kardashian is at the obsessive end of the Twittersphere. JT only updates once every few days. Lady Gaga sits somewhere between the two.
As someone who fluctuates between updating Twitter hourly and not logging on for days, I understand its compulsive appeal. The more you use Twitter, the more you get out of it.
But I am not a high flying celebrity. I work normal hours in what is essentially an office job, at a computer for most of the day. I have time to Tweet.
Some celebrities don't. The fabulous Beyonce Knowles is far too busy for Twitter - she has 868,694 followers and has never posted a single message.
Anyone who has seen her new I Am... World Tour DVD will understand why. Miss B works hard for her millions.
Sure, she was spotted swilling pinot gris on the verandah at Soul Bar on Friday but that was a rare day off for the diva. And probably the first time she'd seen her husband in months.
Other celebrities get their minions to Tweet for them. It is, after all, a bona fide marketing tool.
They update when their albums and films are out and what free clothes they've been given that week.
Fans follow them without thinking.
But perhaps today's blackout will make them rethink. Perhaps they'll enjoy the silence and realise just how pointless all those messages are.
Perhaps they too will log off and go outside. Maybe interact with some real people.
If that happened, it really would be a worthy cause.
Read more of Joanna Hunkin's articles.
