January 28, 2011

• Twitter Melts

  
  I started using Twitter for the same reason everyone else started using Twitter, and that reason was everyone else was using Twitter.  When I signed up, I immediately followed people I admired:  authors, musical artists, comedians, Google, athletes, and journalists.  But now, many of these people seldom update.  It seems like the only things that are occurring on my Twitter feed right now are (1) Jim Rome talking about how much he loves Twitter and (2) food trucks telling me where they’re parked.

  It’s no coincidence that the rising popularity of Twitter and gourmet food trucks occurred simultaneously.  In fact, Mark Manguera should be honored with some sort of Nobel Prize for discovering a practical use for Twitter.  Manguera was the founder of Kogi Korean BBQ (a Korean/Mexican fusion food truck) and he famously used Twitter to tell his followers where his truck was at.  This was largely credited for beginning the food truck revolution.  Food trucks popped up from out of nowhere.  I now follow over ten food trucks on Twitter, with cuisines ranging from Filipino tapa bowls (Tapa Boy) to hand-crafted donut iced cream (Lake Street Creamery).  These food trucks inundate my Twitter timeline at least twice a day and try to convince me that I am hungry.  I chase them all around the San Fernando Valley and wait in long lines to eat food I don’t normally eat in places I don’t normally visit.  This is the cultural byproduct of new social media:  It makes us behave in ways which aren’t normal.

  Here is an example: Perhaps the most unoriginal of the Los Angeles food trucks is the one that specializes in grilled cheese sandwiches.  This is a type of food that is so simple, boring, and easy to make at home that restaurants figured out a long time ago to not serve it.  However, this truck is one of the most popular in LA.  Why?  Because the goons that run this truck figured out that Twitter will make people do anything.  Everyday they tweet about how great the weather is for a grilled cheese sandwich (it’s always mild in LA) and post the location of where they are “melting”.  People flock to their location, wait in hour-long lines, and pay over $12 for a grilled cheese sandwich with tater tots.  This might seem overpriced, but you’re also paying for the experience of eating outside standing up with other curious yuppies who want to dine like eight-year-olds.

  This may be the most important impact of Twitter.

  • 1:48 pm
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