Dear Vanity Fair...

Blimey!  It's been rather a while since I blogged.  I blame 7 Reasons, which takes up most of my writing time, but is excellent fun.  Anyway, this evening I wrote a letter to the editors of Vanity Fair about something on their website which, as it both amused and flummoxed me, I thought I'd post here.  Perhaps someone out there on the other side of this screen (yes that's you, the reader) will have - or be able to speculate fancifully about - the answer to my question.


Dear Editor(s),

I have a question about your website.  Why does your Follow Us box contain a blank speech bubble?  I have been staring at it for several minutes now and can think of no earthly explanation as to why it's there.  A blank speech bubble has no apparent association with any of the various media mentioned in the box's text (Twitter, Facebook,Tumblr or your podcast via iTunes) so what is its purpose?  Unless it was put there to visually convey a message along the lines of shut up and look at our stuff, its inclusion is perplexing.

I have attached a screen capture of the box so that you too may stare at it in bewilderment.

I would be grateful if you could furnish me with an explanation of its presence as I fear that it may cause me to lose sleep or - even worse - discuss it at length with friends and relations.  Yours sincerely,

Marc Fearns

Twitter Is Down!

I returned home an hour ago to discover that Twitter is down. This is terrible. I need to discuss why Twitter is down with other Twitter users but I can't because Twitter is down.

I'm going to have to do something productive instead possibly involving a large owl, food shopping or the cat. I might even have to resort to actual conversation.

I'll come back and check every few minutes, just in case.

Update : No Twitter +1:47

Wife and cat are both asleep so actual conversation attempts thwarted. Food shopping stymied for same reason. Large owl updates hampered by lack of Twitter.

I have loaded the dishwasher and started preparing dinner. I have eaten some Grape Nuts and have made a cup of herbal tea. The weather is overcast. I may go for a cycle ride.

I feel disconnected and bereft of social interaction.

Does Stephen Fry even exist any more? Do I exist any more? Do you?

Update : No Twitter +2:13

What was the world like before Twitter? How did we interact? What did we do?