President Obama types his first tweet on Wednesday, July 6 as Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey looks on.                        Photo: Dana Ritter/CBS News

President Obama, whom admirers tout as our first social media president — much like Bill Clinton was once touted as our first rock n’ roll president — decided this week that a Town Hall meeting could be micro-blogged.

Put another way, Obama read pithy questions off a screen in front of a press gaggle rather than take lengthy questions from a press gaggle. At least that’s how it looked via livestream.

I can envision perfectly the West Wing PR pros who concocted this move. Let’s remind America that the president is hip and tech-savvy — and have him engage with the hip and tech-savvy audience that populates Twitter. Sure, a few digital jokesters will play pranks and the right-wingers will have their say, but far easier to ignore their tweets than the rabble-rousers who crash real-life town hall meetings to become embarrassing YouTube clips.

Besides, a president making digital history by hosting a Twitter Town Hall is a more positive step than, say, the latest news in Afghanistan (which barely registered on Wednesday’s tweets).

The hourlong event, in which Obama’s answers grew longer as the tweets grew shorter, seemed to confirm what most users already know: Twitter is great for relaying quick bits of info, hyperlinking and confirming meetings with associates whose email inboxes are at 1,000+ unread messages.

But to debate complex subject matter? Not so much. Any tweet supplied by the White House reminds me of an election-cycle TV ad that devolves an issue into a five-second sound bite, or in this case 140 characters. As for Obama taking the awe-inspiring step of typing his first tweet rather than relying on underlings (“in order to reduce the deficit, what costs would you cut and what investments would you keep – bo“), you be the judge of how awe-inspiring that was.

Undoubtedly the most annoying tweets came from name politicos, including @SpeakerBoehner and columnist @NickKristof, who couldn’t resist shooting questions even at a forum aimed at mainstream Americans. Both men could easily get the president’s attention through other means, yet they succumbed to PR’s golden rule: “If you’re not communicating in a given space, someone else is doing the communicating for you.”

In other words, better to make an appearance on Twitter than to be perceived as disengaged. Unlike Facebook, originally conceived with at least a notion of privacy, Twitter has always been a public space. One’s tally of tweets, retweets, mentions and followers are both quantifiable stats and bragging rights. On a scale of one to Fashionable, Twitter live forums are the high-tech beauty pageants of our times.

And speaking of beauty pageants, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s presence next to Obama was largely ornamental, much like an emcee reading questions aloud yet reserving his own opinions. Not much for him to do, but such fun to see him there.

The future of town halls? No doubt Twitter is here to stay, but my answer to that question lies in my favorite tweet of the bunch: