Amber McKenna
Dominic Baez

When the Review staff first heard that Ashton Kutcher had challenged CNN to a race, we were confused. To add to the mayhem, we learned the race involved Twitter. The confusion deepened. Finally, we figured it out:
Kutcher was racing with CNN to be the first to have one million Twitter followers – Ashton’s personal account versus CNN’s breaking news account. To top it off, CNN accepted. What is this, a pissing contest?
With all that’s going on in the world today, from the economic crisis, the North Korean missile launch, the lifting of the Cuban embargo, the ridiculous amount of pirate attacks to the legalization of gay
marriage in Iowa and Vermont, etc., do people really have nothing better to do than to follow Ashton on Twitter?
As of April 15, Kutcher’s Twitter account had 896,947 followers, putting him in third place in number of followers on the entire site. Britney Spears was in second with about 905,640 followers, and CNN’s breaking news account was number one, watched by 937,787 people on the site. Kutcher won the race April 16. Well, we will make sure to give him a gold star.
The only saving grace here was the connection to charity on Kutcher’s behalf. He said he would donate 10,000 mosquito nets for World Malaria Day in late April if he won; CNN said it would do the same. But he also said he would only donate 1,000 if he lost. So, he would take out his frustration on malaria victims just because he can’t handle losing? Nice.
The saddest part, though, was the rapid rate that both Kutcher and CNN gained followers. It had taken some time for both Kutcher and CNN to reach the high number of followers they had to begin with. It only took one day for Kutcher to reach one million followers. We all know that, despite his new record, these people won’t continue being his followers; in fact, people trying to remove themselves from his account April 17 were met with a nasty message, according to MSNBC.com: “Whoops! Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and try again!” Not exactly classy, right?
Do the people who swarmed Kutcher’s Twitter have nothing better to do? There are so many other things that people can do with their time, none of which includes joining a race that serves no purpose in life. At least there is a reason for following CNN’s breaking news account; news is a good thing to know about. Knowing what Kutcher is going to eat for lunch today is not.
Twitter is a good thing; we aren’t saying otherwise. Its ability to instantaneously break news and inform its followers is unprecedented. Several Review staff members have personal accounts. But when Twitter becomes a popularity contest and a site where you can basically stalk people, whether they are OK with it or not, it’s gone a bit too far.
Our advice: Go out and meet real people. Trust us, they are far more interesting than any celebrity you are currently stalking.