Is Twitter Really Fun Or Worthless
Is Twitter simply misunderstood or really worthless?
While reading some of the live blogging going on at the 2007 SXSW conference last week, it was apparent that Twitter was the darling company of the event. I was told by my good friend, Patrick McCarthy (who spoke at the event), that there were two large plasma TV’s set up that scrolled Twitter messages all day long. There were also reports from other bloggers that panelist were Twittering while up on the panel. I find that disturbing.
Taken directly from the Twitter home page, they explain their service as:
A global community of friends and strangers answering one simple question: What are you doing? Answer on your phone, IM, or right here on the web!
I’ll admit that the technology behind this whole thing sounds pretty cool. However, I do not understand why everyone is raving so much about the application. I know my friends don’t really care about what I’m doing, and I surely don’t have the time to worry about what all my friends are doing. Are people really that bored?
What I really think is wild is the statement made by Jason Calacanis in his recent Twitter Is On Fire blog post. Jason said:
Yes, this is the start of something big. Soon Twitter will carry video, audio, and photos… when that happens Twitter replaces IM and email and flickr 50% of the time
That is a pretty bold statement and I personally don’t see it happening. At least for me it won’t because I don’t think I’ll be creating a Twitter account any time soon. Unless otherwise convinced that Twitter is worth my time, I’d rather focus my energy on something useful and fun.
I totally understand how Twitter can be used for more than just letting your friends know what you are doing, but there are already several services currently in place that everyone already uses and are comfortable using. There is definitely room for more efficient and streamlined processes to deliver content to your friends, but I don’t think Twitter is the answer. At least not in it’s current form.
Twitter sounds like it would be fun for about 10 minutes, then would annoy the hell out of me. I also hate the name. I’m not the only one who feels this way about Twitter.
I do respect the idea and the technology driving the application. I just don’t think that the application, especially the way it is currently pitched, is worth all of the hype it has been receiving lately.
The good news is that Twitter has proven that people are ready to interact more with web applications through other channels such as IM and cell phones. That is going to be a space to watch as it will only become more popular riding on the success that Twitter has seen.
