Today is kind of a Monumental Day for Twitter. First, we had two users–Ashton Kutcher and CNN’s breaking-news feed–breaking the million-follower mark; and then–get out your plush couches and soft lighting, everyone!–the Queen of All Media signed on to the service.
Yes! Oprah! Whose Twitter bio exhorts me to “Live Your Best Life”! (And now, you know, I think I just might!)
Winfrey’s tweets thus far have run the gamut–from Life Updates, to Communications with Other Twelebrities, to Meta-Musings about Her New Twitter Identity:
HI TWITTERS . THANK YOU FOR A WARM WELCOME. FEELING REALLY 21st CENTURY .
about 4 hours ago from web
hi jimmy order a reuben for me.
about 3 hours ago from web
hi everyone. sadie’s great. gets her rabies vaccine today.
about 3 hours ago from web
little jordan is next. love this kid
about 3 hours ago from web
george thats a promo not a tweet.
about 3 hours ago from web
@mrskutcher count me in for 20,thousand nets.
about 3 hours ago from web
Now, so far, I can’t help but noting, none of this is really helping me live my best life. (“hi jimmy order a reuben for me.”? Really?) Then again, though, it probably doesn’t much matter, in the end, what Winfrey tweets. This is Oprah, after all. She transcends all–even, yes, the contents of her Twitter feed itself. Even if The Great One ends up ghost-Twittering, or Twittering the contents of the Greater Chicago Area phone book over the course of a year, or referencing Gayle King in every tweet, or referencing NAMBLA in every tweet…she’ll probably still be beloved. Or Tweloved, or whatever. The Queen of All Media means the Queen of All Media. Even when she’s ordering a Reuben.
Megan Garber is an assistant editor at the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University. She was formerly a CJR staff writer.