Article

Categories

What Has Twitter Become?

The real insights from the real experts, the real philosophers, the real thinkers, are being drowned out by a cacophony of noise.

When I first signed up to Twitter it blew my mind. It opened doors that until then had been firmly closed. It gave me instant access to people who had previously been inaccessible.



What I loved was Twitter’s democracy. Everyone was equal, everyone was just as available as everyone else. I remember sending tweets to sports legends and getting replies from them. I mean?—?wow.


I quickly realized that people went on Twitter to connect with other people, to interact. They actually wanted to interact. To me this was revolutionary and I became a Twitter convert overnight and an evangelist within a week.


I still love Twitter and I’ve made (and continue to make) some amazing connections. It’s still opening doors to people that that I’d never normally get to know. But things have changed. Over the last year or so it’s started to lose its appeal.


Maybe its the huge upsurge in promoted tweets, or the exponential increase in business gurus who’ve colonized Twitter, or the rise of the trolls who get a kick out of kicking other people.


I can’t quite put my finger in it, but something is wrong. 


What started out as a magnificent, open, democratic forum is slowly turning into the domain of sound bites, philosophical quotes and business catchphrases. Everyone can now make themselves look clever.


The result is that the real insights from the real experts, the real philosophers, the real thinkers, are being drowned out by a cacophony of noise.

 

What started out as a magnificent, open, democratic forum is slowly turning into the domain of sound bites.


Umair Haque
 recently wrote “Abuse is killing the social web… It has significant chilling effects: given a tipping point, people will simply stop using a network, and walk away…and that appears to be what’s happening with Twitter.”


To him, Twitter is slowly dying because tribalism and abuse have become the norm: “We dreamed that we created a revolution. But we did not heed the great lesson of revolution. Today’s revolutionary is tomorrow’s little tyrant.”

I agree that Twitter has become the domain of trolls, extremists and haters of all types. But that simply reflects our society as a whole. Social media provides an outlet for people’s anger and fears and frustrations and hatreds. It’s precisely because Twitter is so democratic that it’s been colonized by the nasties.


However, that’s not what bothers me most about Twitter. What bothers me more is its slow, inexorable slide into mediocrity and irrelevance. The trolls, in their own way, add life to Twitter. If you don’t like engaging with them, just block them. It’s the gurus and experts and ‘insight providers’ that are killing the platform by flooding it with irrelevant crap.


And yes, I know we can just unfollow or block them as well, but what happens when people you’ve followed for a long time?—?people who, until now, have always had interesting things to say?—?get drawn over to the Dark Side? What do you do when they start quoting insight after insight and quote after quote? Do you unfollow them? Do you mute them? (I’ve muted quite a few people as I don’t want to offend them by unfollowing them).

What bothers me is Twitter’s slow, inexorable slide into mediocrity and irrelevance.


The way things are going, there soon won’t be any decent people left to follow. It will just be an endless merry-go-round of quoters quoting and re-quoting each other until they all explode in a big ball of hot air.


Twitter, in it’s desperation to make money and keep its investors happy is trying everything to attract new users. 140 characters too short for that philosophical quote? Well, let’s just think about increasing the character length. Businesses not making enough money on the platform?

Let’s allow them to post even more crappy adverts. Sorry Twitter?—?those may bring in some cash, but in the long run it’s not going to be a sustainable strategy. New users may be attracted to sign up, but once they see what they’re getting, they’ll stop logging in and will add to the growing millions of inactive accounts.


The solution? I don’t have one I’m afraid. But I’m worried that all the good people - the interesting people - will slowly drift away and Twitter will become an irrelevance. I hope I’m wrong.


If Twitter dies I will mourn its demise. It’s become such an integral part of my life that I don’t know what I’ll do without it. But I’m manage. I’ll move on. I may even get an old couch and start reading more books. Perhaps that’s not such a bad outcome.

Original Article

 

Read More About Twitter

Please login or register to add a comment.

Contribute Now!

Loving our articles? Do you have an insightful post that you want to shout about? Well, you've come to the right place! We are always looking for fresh Doughnuts to be a part of our community.

Popular Articles

See all
How to Review a Website — A Guide for Beginners

How to Review a Website — A Guide for Beginners

A company website is crucial for any business's digital marketing strategy. To keep up with the changing trends and customer buying behaviors, it's important to review and make necessary changes regularly...

Digital Doughnut Contributor
Digital Doughnut Contributor 25 March 2024
Read more
The Impact of New Technology on Marketing

The Impact of New Technology on Marketing

Technology has impacted every part of our lives. From household chores to business disciplines and etiquette, there's a gadget or app for it. Marketing has changed dramatically over the years, but what is the...

Alex Lysak
Alex Lysak 3 April 2024
Read more
The World Is Shrinking: 6 Degrees of Separation Is Now 2!

The World Is Shrinking: 6 Degrees of Separation Is Now 2!

Six degrees of separation is not just a party game, it's a reality. Everyone is the world is interconnected, and thanks to social media, that connectedness gets tighter and richer each day. See the research...

Scott Christley
Scott Christley 9 August 2017
Read more
10 Factors that Influence Customer Buying Behaviour Online

10 Factors that Influence Customer Buying Behaviour Online

Now is an era where customers take the center stags influencing business strategies across industries. No business can afford to overlook factors that could either break the customer experience or even pose a risk of...

Edward Roesch
Edward Roesch 4 June 2018
Read more
Cats and Dogs Boost Your Business By 300%. Here’s How.

Cats and Dogs Boost Your Business By 300%. Here’s How.

It’s the age-old question that has endured ever since the creation of the internet: are you a cat person or a dog person? Or do you love both cats and dogs? We have both dog lovers and cat lovers at Sortlist, so it...

Aline Strouvens
Aline Strouvens 27 August 2021
Read more