Tweet, tweet: I found a little bird who knows everything

Remember the days when you could sit down every morning with a cup of coffee and open your newspaper to find everything you needed to know?

Or at least everything you thought you needed to know.

That's more of a story than a memory for me and by the time I have children I fear newspapers may be something kids laugh at the way we make fun of our parents for listening to music on eight-tracks or vinyl.

A wave of information hit the world with the invention of the Internet (thank you, Al Gore) and since it has become commonplace in every American household, the newspaper's value has rapidly decreased.

Forget finding everything you need in one simple place. Now you have the World Wide Web and you can find anything you ever needed to know and stuff you never wanted to know/hear/see with the click of a button and a few strokes of the keyboard.

And it's fabulous.

Since graduating from college and entering 'the real world,' my morning routine has been similar to that of my grandparents - yet so different.

When I stumble out of bed around noon (oh the life of a sports reporter), I turn on my coffee maker, collapse onto my couch and immediately reach for my hot pink laptop to read my morning (well, for me) news.

I have a set routine of websites to check - Facebook, Fox News, Fox Sports, the Sentinel, ESPN, NFL.com, Packers.com and occasionally Pella's Town Crier or the Des Moines Register.

Then last week I gave in to a rapidly spreading phenomenon and joined Twitter.

And I was taken back to a time where everything you could ever want was found in one place.

Not in a newspaper, but in one website.

By following news and sports networks, beat writers, columnists and bloggers, all I need to do is log onto my Twitter account and read the tweets from these sources. They provide me with the info I want and if I so desire, I can click the link associated with the one-line update and read the story for myself.

Gone are the days where I visit website upon website, sifting through the headlines about NASCAR and the NBA to find the stuff that really matters - the NFL, college hoops, a few MLB scores and college football.

Even more, I can follow actual football players (Ryan Grant) and get updates from their world.

Gone are the days of living privately - we all knew that a long time ago, although Erin Andrews apparently thought privacy still existed. Sorry sweetheart, you're a public figure and therefore everything you do is considered newsworthy. Someone has to support the 'journalistic' career of Perez Hilton.

But seriously, I feel like I could cut out reading every other website if I just follow the right people on Twitter. It's fabulous and I'm addicted.

No one really cares what I'm doing from moment to moment (though I still let them know), but following others, now that's intriguing.

And completely depressing at the same time.

Are we getting so lazy that going to the Favorites menu and selecting a website to visit has become too much work?

Even the newest version of Internet Explorer gives me options of sites I may enjoy based on sites I visit the most. And it also suggests pages to me whenever I click open a new tab on my browser.

By accepting that update and joining sites like Twitter, have we given our brains a permanent vacation? We no longer need to remember what newspaper we read online - the computer reminds us.

Worse than just a simple case of laziness is the social barricade these sites produce.

What? I thought sites like Facebook and Twitter were created for the purpose of social networking and interaction.

Sure, they do that.

But by creating endless means of virtual interaction, we are slowly eliminating our real life interactions in an 'even' exchange for online communications.

By creating online profiles, we can easily eliminate the need to meet people by traditional means or even to see our friends on a daily basis.

If you have a computer or a cell phone, you can be constantly connected to your friends without ever having to see them.

Even more, break-ups via text message, Facebook posts or Tweets have probably become completely acceptable, continuing to support the fact that real-life interaction is becoming extinct.

Think about it. How did you hear about the latest engagement of a college friend? The birth of someone's baby? Someone's trip to Europe or a friend meeting a pseudo-celebrity at a ball game or the mall?

I'd guess it was not in person or even with a phone call. Perhaps a Facebook status update, a TweetPic or a mass-text on your Blackberry.

Did you miss the wedding of a friend or relative? Don't worry - the pictures will be posted online before they return from their honeymoon.

Before you know it, the NFL/MLB/NBA drafts will be transformed into entirely virtual events. No more live shots of people waiting to be selected, no one will watch ESPN for hours on draft day. All you'll have to do is click 'refresh' on your Twitter page and the selections will magically appear before your eyes. Even the athletes will find out on Twitter whether or not they'll be playing in the big leagues.

If you ask me, it's all getting to sad and pathetic - and I'm a single 23-year-old (with a cat) living in northwest Iowa, so believe me, I know pathetic.

So what to do with Twitter, MySpace, Facebook and the like?

I'm sure I'll keep my accounts, but I'll also continue to peruse my lengthy list of websites and other information sources.

Although given the choice, I'd much rather have my best friend in person, joining me for my morning cup of joe as we catch up on the events in our lives and around the world.

But hey, that's just me.