If you listen to Allen's Real Life and Faith Moments you will know that Allen jumped on the Is Twitter Evil bandwagon this week.

Here's the basic gist of the USC findings: Twitter is bad becuase supposedly quick thoughts stunt brain development and we become less emotionally connected and empathetic to people in our lives.

USC needs to go back to doing what they do best (being overrated in college football) and leave serious medical study to the real professionals (those at Duke).

I have been on many mission trips, and a study abroad in a war torn area. One of the key things I have learned from these trips is that it is hard to inspire compassion and empathy with the average person unless they a.) experience the problems outside of the USA first hand, and b.) are reminded of problems often upon their return.

So what does this have to do with Twitter / Facebook updates? Simple.

There is no way before Twitter / Facebook people could stay connected the way they do now.

Take for example Lissa in the above graphic. My cheeseburger-hilariousness made her day. I have no idea if this is true or not. But I do know there is no way I could even have attempted to make her day if it weren't for Twitter / Facebook given that she lives on the other side of the US from me and I am not going to call her and tell her about my cheeseburger insight.

But this goes beyond my hilariousness.

Lissa is a phenomenal attorney no doubt about it, but the other day Lissa didn't have a particularly good day in court. We all have those days where we just aren't firing on all cylinders. And as my dad always said, your first year out of law school is more of a learning experience than your previous three in law school. If you aren't making mistakes, you aren't doing it right. But I digress...

So she posted on her Facebook status that she didn't have a good day and within a few hours she got encouragement from friends all over the country reaffirming that she was in fact a phenomenal attorney and to keep her head up.

My worst professional day since graduating college was November 16, 2005 - it was so horrendous I still think about the mistakes I made on that day. But I wish I had Twitter / Facebook then because I could have lamented and friends would have picked me up.

Most of the people in our lives are a huge source of encouragement when we need them, but they can't be empathetic if they don't know what is going on. And frankly, who is going to call every single of one of their friends and tell them about the awful day they had?

So I am taking on USC because they aren't just inadequate at college football; they are also inept at studying the brain. Now, how can I condense this post into 140 characters or less?


P.S. Join the immorality: follow me on Twitter