Yikes: Twitter’s Here, There and Everywhere

I’m a big fan of Twitter. Heck, I even write a blog about Twitter.

But I have to concede the hype about Twitter seems to be getting out of control. Everywhere you turn, there’s a story about Twitter.

Earlier this week, the Toronto Star unveiled a contest about the meaning of life based on 140-characters or less. The Globe & Mail had a story about how you could stalk ex-lovers using Twitter. And Biz Stone appeared on the Colbert Report.

Now, there’s no denying Twitter is experiencing astounding growth as it goes from tool of the geeks to something celebrities are even embracing. And you know how the digerati enjoys supporting and reveling in the hype of the new kid in town.

But have we collectively become obsessed with Twitter – not only users who feel the need to share minute details of their lives but the media, which has latched onto Twitter with so much enthusiasm recently?

Before anyone accuses me of jumping off the bandwagon, I’m still excited about Twitter as a valuable and useful communications tools with a broad range of uses – both personal and professional. As much blogging was a huge step forward in how we communicate and share ideas, Twitter has jump-started user-generated content in a new and exciting direction.

That said, even I’m feeling some Twitter Fatigue (TF). However, I do not buy into David Randall’s contention in The Independent that Twitter has peaked and on its way to the digital graveyard to lie beside long-forgotten entities such as Hotbot.com and Boo.com.

Twitter seems to have cemented itself as the microblogging service – much like the Blackberry is the tool for mobile e-mail. Twitter is just scratching the surface as far as users are concerned even if we are all getting a tad too excited about it.

Technorati Tags: social media, twitter

Subscribe to "This Week in Canadian Startups"

A weekly newsletter delivered to your inbox!

This entry was posted in Social Media. Bookmark the permalink.

http://thefuturebuzz.com Adam Singer

Well Mark it takes guts to post this, as you have an entire blog devoted to Twitter – so kudos for that (it takes guts, because some might say that it is hypocritical for you to write this when you *do* in fact contribute to the buzz).

With that said I agree with what you're saying, but hey the media has latched onto this for better or for worse. I would just ignore it and keep doing what you're doing. The media hypes everything and anything that gains even a little bit of a following, they did this with MySpace and Facebook. At the end of the day those who actually use the service and derive value from it will keep using it and the people there for the hype will leave.

You're right, there is a lot of hype. I'd say ignoring it is the best solution and let the cheerleaders do what they do.

http://intensedebate.com/people/markevans markevans

Adam,

You're right; it does seem at cross purposes to complain about being over-Twittered while helping feed the Twitter hype machine.

Thanks for the feedback.

Mark

http://intensedebate.com/people/malcolmbastien Malcolm Bastien

I would say that the mass public is getting into the honey-moon phase with Twitter now. And though I'm not pessimistic and do think that it will catch on enough to become ridiculously huge, it's giving me a sour taste in my mouth a bit whenever I think of it.

I fix that by taking a sweet indulgence in looking at the ways in which real-time messaging and communication (I've been told the term micro-blogging doesn't do the movement justice) will evolve, become more open and spread.
http://michaelcoulson.com Michael Coulson

This sentiment strikes a chord for me. I too have been reveling in the power of twitter and, like many other social media types have gone around proselytizing the word of the tweet.

But I found myself yesterday talking to a fellow musician about its power and how there were so many new ways to connect to his audience. And the look in his face said it all – he's heard it already and he's heard it all too often. He simply doesn't have the time or desire to be constantly connected.

I had the same conversation with a buddy who is a journalist at the Globe and Mail. His argument, which we've all heard, is that all these tools are just creating more 24/7 work for him, and he's not paid for that time.

I'm beginning to think that there will be a large and vocal resistance movement to all of this, and an increasing number of people "shutting off". If they're trying to get the word out, the web is here to stay, and they're going to need a home page. But they don't need to twitter, nor do they need a blackberry to answer emails as they arrive.

I'm not sure this is going to happen immediately. I'm not sure we're at the saturation point yet. But as more tools are created and more distance appears between the ranks of the uber-connected and the less-than-connected, I foresee the pendulum swinging back.
http://googlescloud.blogspot.com Sheldon

Twitter is amazing, and I don't think that it has peaked. I teach at a university and it's definitely the buzz these days. more and more of my students are joining on. Initially they say, "what's the point of this?", then they say, "I'm addicted." It happened to me.
http://firedfornow.com FiredForNow

No one in the media seems to have commented on two parallel events: the huge rise in Twitter uniques from October/November on and the massive rise in unemployment.

Do a Twitter search on "laid off", "lost my job", or "unemployed" and you'll see instantly what I mean.

Twitter has benefited from a unique segment suddenly with far more free time and greater need of community — having just lost their work community.

ffn
firedfornow.com
http://intensedebate.com/people/markevans markevans

FiredForNow,

That's an interesting take on Twitter's rise in popularity. You could make the same argument for LinkedIn.
http://bloggingmebloggingyou.wordpress.com ed lee

hi mark – excellent points. it's interesting to see how every time a new technology hits the world, people are amazed at how much it's hyped, even though the same cycle happened last time with the last big thing.

there's even a name for it: the gartner hype cycle.

sorry to be so self-promoting but i wrote a quick post on how the gartner hype cycle is being played out on a number of different technologies:

http://tr.im/geum

ed