I’ve already declared myself on this subject many moons ago, so don’t view this post as anything other than status quo. Even on the far side of the world, twitter-mania is running rampant. The fact that simple multi-cast of short text messages is causing this hurts my head.
Who cares that Oprah is tweeting, I mean, really? Can’t you watch the Oprah show, read Oprah magazine, visit the website, and sign up for newsletters already? And the addition of Demi and Ashton, yuck!
CNN is running a front page on the Whitehouse jumping on twitter. Egads, it’s out of control!
Well, I’m going to go out on a limb as this meme is crossing over from the geek-o-sphere to common knowledge to say: it’s a fad. There is nothing unique, sustainable, or even interesting about twitter. Those who use it, will in the future be known as Twits. Trust me, it’s MySpace on steroids. The aspect that will survive is the notion of personal broadcasting – narcissism reigns supreme and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
Meanwhile, the only Tweet that is a good Tweet is Tweety Bird, thanks Warner Brothers and Mel Blanc.
As Lynn says, Twitter is Reality TV for idiots who don’t have a camera. I say it’s narcicissm taken to a whole new level. There are people who have mastered the art, like Jim Treacher, but most people are just using it to mutter inanities. I sinceerely hope it’s a fad, but I’m guessing it’s more a niche that helsp kill e-mail over time. Yuck.
Hope you’re wrong about it killing email, I like the asynchronous nature of the medium. Reality TV for Idiots without a camera, that’s great!
I’m one of those idiots who constantly use Twitter and understand how to use it for content, ideas, knowledge and connecting with people not only over the application but for real.
I use TweetDeck which allows me to filter criteria to see only what I am interested in. Do I care that you’re having a hard time waking up and need coffee? Not really. But here’s a last Tweet from someone in my industry I have a tremendous amount of respect for: Hi, I’m glad our Twitter worlds have connected. Social sharing ideas, knowledge, joys and sorrows is a wonderful thing!
We also tweeted our whole conference which had a lot of great feedback from people interested, but couldn’t attend. You see, Twitter allows tagging. http://search.twitter.com/search?max_id=1746319742&page=4&q=lk2009
Finally, here’s a “benefits” post from ProBlogger: http://www.twitip.com/benefits-twitter/ Look at some of the comments, like: I definitely agree with the water cooler benefit. Working at home can be very isolating; I’ve been doing it for nine years now and wish I would have had Twitter years ago.
or
Because of my direct participation and interaction on Twitter, I’ve been hired by clients, I’ve had people join my classes, and I’ve made great collaboration partners.
Sure, there’s a lot of noise on it and many people don’t understand it and really, who /does/ care that Oprah is on it? That doesn’t mean it’s not without benefits.
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