Margaret Atwood, honest to blog, is addicted to tweeting

Margaret Atwood is so hip she could be a high school student, what with her goalie video going viral and now blogging for the New York Review of Books about her new-found addiction to tweeting. That’s right, blogging about tweeting. While the actions are certifiably hip, her analysis is delightfully old school. About her followers, she writes:

They’re sharp: make a typo and they’re on it like a shot, and they tease without mercy. However, if you set them a verbal challenge, a frisson sweeps through them. They did very well with definitions for “dold socks”—one of my typos—and “Thnax,” another one. And they really shone when, during the Olympics, I said that “Own the podium” was too brash to be Canadian, and suggested “A podium might be nice.” Their own variations poured onto a feed tagged #cpodium: “A podium! For me?” “Rent the podium, see if we like it.” “Mind if I squeeze by you to get onto that podium?” I was so proud of them! It was like having 33,000 precocious grandchildren!

Continuing the metaphor, a recent tweet bemoans her grannydom:

O, T-pals: I now appear to be a lovable, fuzzy-cardiganed ol’ granny – when did that happen? >:-( (I do have the fuzzy cardigan tho’.)

Look at her, using the hell out of those emoticons! While we are proud of our celebrated, literary grandmother for being so with it, we hope someone will stop her from ever trying Chatroulette.

• Atwood in the Twittersphere [New York Review of Books]

• Margaret Atwood’s Twitter page