Twitter and the fast moving world

I've often been a person who picks up on new trends and at least gives them a go. I love new technology and am always fascinated with the way that people interact with them. I took papers on Sociology and Media when I was at university and this has always been a strong interest. The uptake of the mobile phone and the always changing landscape of cyberspace.
There has been a rise in social networking over recent years, I myself have Bebo, MySpace and Facebook profiles. I spend all my time on the latter and these days mostly ignore the other two. However the one new rise in online media and social networking as left me a little confused, but mostly disinterested.
Twitter, as far as I can tell, is just a bunch of status updates. Now I can see some benefits for celebrities, websites or other businesses. Twitter produces quick snippets of information to send out to people. But when it comes to my friends, frankly I don't care that much. I don't need constant updates on what they are doing, what they are thinking. I feel like we are becoming more and more disjointed as a society, despite this level of connectivity, as we don't take the time to really ENGAGE with other people. This is perhaps me being old and cynical (Early 20's and somehow I am made to feel old!) but I think we need to spend more time sitting around and talking to people. I'm sick of everything speeding up, quick updates, fast food, text messages. I hate that language is reducing to 'txt speak' where people don't bother to spell anything. Now I am a terrible speller, possibly worse at grammar, but I still think it is important that we communicate in standard English, reducing the language to text speak will surely lead to confusion. I remember a TV advert where a boy in a supermarket receives a text, "get chps" and he thinks "Chops, or Chips?", with people spending less time on the communication they put forward are they taking less time to think about the interpretation? With new media there isn't always a way to convey a tone of voice, and with so much information so accessible to many people how do you know that a joke between friends won't be misconstrued as something incredibly offensive by another friend. If we keep speeding up and reducing the communication surely we are simply going to loose an important level of interaction.
Of course perhaps it is progress and should not be so nostalgic for a time that was. Although I spend a lot of time on the internet and far too much time on facebook I like to take the time to really connect with my good friends, my favorite pastime is enjoying a meal with them. Sitting down and taking the time to have a meal, or a glass of wine, or a coffee and to really talk to my friends is so much more meaningful than 'cyber stalking' them. I like my facebook, it is a wonderful tool for connecting with my friends, an easy way to contact them since we are all addicted, and is diverse so we can share events and invites.
My opinion of Twitter is in the name, 'twitter' is just a bunch of background noise I don't really pay attention to.

Although with all my criticism of the new phenomenon I haven't bothered to create my own account and actually take the time to explore. Perhaps I will soon be drawn into the new 'it' thing. With all my interest in new mediums it is highly likely I will at some point have to join the masses and start 'twitting' my life.