Thanks to the birth of YouTube.com and clip-driven television channels like MTV, the average attention span of a college student is on the decline.
Catering to people who are busy and on the go, snippets of personal information are sprouting up across the Internet. Away messages, social networking profiles, Facebook.com statuses and Twitter.com, lumped together under the term "micro-blogs," are now a common way to catch up on friends' lives and advertise one's own personal preferences.
Micro-blogs routinely plaster political statements, song lyrics, petty annoyances, Web site links or current locations (in class, at work, etc.) across cyberspace, reflecting a society more attuned to voice-free constant communication with friends and family than ever before.
The Daily set out to find a smattering of momentary statuses from current Jumbos. Surprisingly, it was more difficult than expected — people were far less likely to share their statuses out loud, "in real life," than in the virtual world.
Some seemed ambivalent about the rise of micro-blogs; others were openly opposed to them.
"I never use Facebook statuses," junior Adam Kornetsky said. "I don't need to know everything about everyone's lives."
But some did play ball and offered up on-the-spot statuses. The following is a collection from this verbal approximation of micro-blogging.
