@Twitter Tweet #DriVeL
How long will it last, I wonder? What used to be interesting blogs have given themselves over to a so-called social networking phenomenon that reveals human beings, at least in the developed world, as little more than moronic attention seekers. I've rarely seen a Twitter page containing anything but a vacuous stream of keyboard garbage. It's all complete drivel.
It wouldn't be so bad if Twitter kept itself to itself. But it doesn't. You hear about it in the news, important people are heard discussing it (and are seen to waste their time Twittering on it), organisations use it for marketing, and worst of all, blogs that were once a good read are now defunct, newly infested with "Latest Tweets" 140 characters max.
To take an example: Douglas Bowman, 11,166 followers on Twitter (today). Douglas, who is one of the best web designers in the world, also runs a blog as his creative outlet – or he did until he took up Tweeting instead. The fact that he's now the creative director at Twitter might have something to do with it, but like many other people who not long ago wrote thoughtful, interesting blogs, he now Tweets things like: "Me thinks @dribbble needs some kind of email notification (real-time or digest) for new activity. I'm missing out on conversations…" and he hasn't written anything on his blog for over seven months, except of course his Latest Tweets.
Never miss out on conversations
People say Twitter helps spread the word and that you get to find out things now trending faster than you would from regular news bulletins. A democratic tool, they also say. Even if these things are true, being up-to-speed on the latest buzz has no practical value to most people. It serves only to feed the illusion of self-importance, connectedness, and being in the loop.
As for Twitter as a marketing opportunity, it's only an opportunity until everyone else does it. Then it's a burden, sapping resources that could have been better used elsewhere. I notice that an organisation I'm a member of – the Cycle Touring Club in the UK – is on both Twitter and Facebook. And as is to be expected, their real website is poor, with pride of place on its homepage given over to the nonsense that someone who works there has Tweeted on Twitter.
Douglas Bowman also Tweeted: "Two types of people in line at the DMV: those who have smartphones/ipods, & those who don't. The have-nots engage in conversation." I think he's in favour of conversation. I hope he means real conversation, and that people like him will go back to writing useful, intelligent things on their blogs.
