Imagine this tweet popping up on your Blackberry:

I'm in a board meeting. Having a miscarriage. Thank goodness, because there's a f - - - ed up 3-week hoop-jump to have an abortion in Wisconsin.

I don't follow anyone on Twitter -- who has the time, for Pete's sake? -- but I'm sure if that message had beeped on my screen, I would have thought it was a joke. In bad taste, to be sure, but a joke nonetheless. Then I would have shaken my head in dismay. What some people will do for attention!

Instant communication has flattened the world and connected us in ways unimaginable a few years back. But it has also turned serious into shallow and profound into trivial.

Penelope Trunk, the Madison, Wis., woman who sent that message while meeting with her company's board, may be the latest example of how we sometimes use technology for all the wrong reasons.

Trunk, 42, is a workplace advice columnist and author who, according to her bio, launched her company, Brazen Careerist, to create an online community for young working people. She wants to help ``people find success at the intersection of work and life, because that's what she wants for herself. She thinks of career advice as a group effort.''

I suppose that tweeting about bodily functions during a meeting might be part of that group effort. But a miscarriage is not just another bodily function, not anything like: Farting at board meeting. Gassy and bloated from the bad food in the cafeteria. H.R. needs to change caterers.

As expected, Trunk's miscarriage tweet was heard around the world -- or at least around the blogosphere. Twitter followers jumped ship, and CNN and ABC came calling. Hundreds commented on her blog, with emotions ranging from sympathy to disgust.

Trunk, a divorced mother of two who blogs about work and personal issues in an informative and entertaining way (no matter what one may think about her tweets), has mounted a spirited defense. Most miscarriages, she says, happen at work, and to talk openly about this is healthy. What's more, hers was an unwanted pregnancy and she was relieved. She's entitled to her feelings.

But writing cavalierly -- and in 140 characters, no less -- about what can be a heartbreaking moment for other women and tying that to the hot-button issue of abortion does nothing to enlighten any debate. Instead, the frenzy has focused on her and a medium known for its inanity.

Trunk told a Madison reporter that one of her jobs is to market her ``personal brand'' as president of an edgy company, ``to be in the press about having surprising views about the workplace.'' Tweeting about her miscarriage has accomplished that and much more.

It turns out that the controversial tweet came about a month after Trunk announced the launch of her social networking site for Generation Y professionals. You have to wonder if she was being honest to make a point about women in the workplace or provocative to push her own career.

Being interviewed on CNN probably generated thousands of page views and an unparalleled branding opportunity. Then again, I suspect Trunk will soon find out that free advertising has its own price.

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