"The Trouble with Twitter," a cartoon from 2009

In 2009, Current TV's "Supernews!" program featured this cartoon making fun of Twitter. From a Wired interview at the time with show creator Josh Faure-Brac:

Wired.com: …Are you worried about making the Fail Whale cooler than it already, sadly, is?

Josh Faure-Brac [Laughs] You know, I had no idea that the Fail Whale was all that cool. When I started writing the piece, I was really an outsider. The people I work with at Current TV are almost frighteningly tech-savvy, and when I suddenly heard them talking about Twitter, I was pretty much that guy in the cartoon saying, "Twitter, what's Twitter?" The reaction I got was pretty much the same as in the cartoon too. So I signed up, realized it was a bizarre universe that would be fun to explore. When I was Googling images for the look of it, the Fail Whale kept popping up. So I had to use it.

Wired.com: So now that you're on Twitter, do you feel that friendship in 140 characters or less is not truly friendship?

Josh Faure-Brac: Kinda sorta. I'm sure people make acquaintances and maybe meet people that become friends but I'm worried that good old fashioned real friends who listen to you and aren't staring at their cell phones while you talk are becoming a thing of the past.