An indication that something is starting to break into the mainstream is when the early-adopters begin to jump off the bandwagon.
In the past few days, I’ve seen a few items about how Twitter has peaked
Steve Rubel, for example, believes Twitter is peaking because the “who’s who of geeks” are no longer among the top-100 users. He suggests this means that Twitter may “lose it geek cred”.
To be blunt, Rubel comes across as a geek who’s disappointed Twitter is no longer the exclusive play thing for the digerati. When only the geeks are using it, online services such as Twitter are seen as cool and exclusive. When everyone else embraces the service, the service becomes boring and passe. You could describe this phenomenon as geek snobbery.
For Rubel, suggesting that Twitter is peaking is also a way for him to attract some attention as someone going against the grain so that when Twitter does eventually peak, he can claim he was among the first people who called it.
The other Twiter-is-done story was by the Globe & Mail’s Ivor Tossell, who proclaimed that “Things fall apart. Take Twitter. It’s over, done with. It’s an ex-songbird.”
Thossell, said he’s disappointed by the fact new people coming into Twitter “who mostly seem to be self-promoters of some variety, aren’t the people I want to be talking to. The fertile conversation that made it such an amazing place seems to have faded. The spark is gone. It might be time to pack up and move on.”
Here’s my diagnosis for what ails Ivor: you’re following the wrong people who aren’t meeting your needs. Solution: spend some time to find new followers, while dropping people who fail to meet the grade.
From where I sit, Twitter is just starting to solidify itself as a new, useful and interesting communications medium – much the same way that blogs jumped into the spotlight.
It’s still early days so suggesting Twitter has peaked or that Twitter is over is, at best, premature and, at worse, short-sighted.
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7 Comments
The same was probably said about Facebook last year. Twitter is the latest shiny new object of the social media world that's gone mainstream so of course everybody's talking about it. After a while, it becomes "part of life" and we stop talking about it.
To paraphrase Charlene Li, "Twitter is becoming like Air". The thing about air is you don't really care about it until you're not getting any.
I agree…Its kind of natural for the early adopters to be slamming Twitter…and frankly, I think smart folks are using Twitter, testing it, practicing, and giving it a warm embrace…
I've been wondering just when the geekerati would become disgruntled with the way the unwashed masses have flocked to Twitter. Perhaps now is the time.
What they don't understand, apparently, is that we haven't even scratched the surface of what Twitter will become. It's only with mass adoption (and fail-safe uptime) that it can morph into a reliable, useful way to do whatever it is you want to do with it.
And, of course, nobody has to follow people who don’t interest them, so Twitter can be just as niche as it always was – if people know how to use it properly. Saying that Twitter becomes less useful because more people are using it defies logic and indicates a level of snobbery and curmudgeon-ly-ness that’s just plain silly.
I, for one, am excited about the future possibilities. Especially for Twittertainment!
@CarriBugbee [aka @PeggyOlson]
That is typical for most early-adopter-geeks: “normal” people start liking “their” toy/tool/gadget, too. Which automatically devalues it.
Funny thing is: they derive their status from exactly this process. Kind of love-hate-relationship, I would say. Practically, it means that Twitter is in deed becoming part of mainstream–which is a good thing!
I had a few cringe moments when I heard about Twitter in the big mainstream, but I'm over that now. Create groups, unfollow stupid people, and keep Tweeting. There's plenty of room for all of us.
I totally agree, Nancy. The greatest challenge I have is actually with Twitter's success–in a good way. With new followers mounting, it's hard to filter through them and segment or categorize them. I suppose I need to familiarize myself more with TweetDeck and such as useful tools for this.
What I've noticed with Twitter is that some of the more hesitant-to-jump-on-the-latest-technology-bandwagon folks are really using effectively to exchange ideas and grow their businesses, With that always comes a bit of self-promotion, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Just as Facebook applications have exploded to meet the new ways in which people are using it, the same holds true for Twitter. For me, at least, I'm less concerned as to whether it's reached it's peak, than I am that it still has relevance and value to help my business (and personal) connections.
The greatest challenge I have is actually with Twitter's success–in a good way. With new followers mounting, it's hard to filter through them and segment or categorize them. I suppose I need to familiarize myself more with TweetDeck and such as useful tools for this. ____What I've noticed with Twitter is that some of the more hesitant-to-jump-on-the-latest-technology-bandwagon folks are really using effectively to exchange ideas and grow their businesses, With that always comes a bit of self-promotion, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.____Just as Facebook applications have exploded to meet the new ways in which people are using it, the same holds true for Twitter. For me, at least, I'm less concerned as to whether it's reached it's peak, than I am that it still has relevance and value to help my business (and personal) connections.
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