The fickle Twitterer(roughtype.com)
roughtype.com
The fickle Twitterer
http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2009/04/the_fickle_twit.php
6 comments
Twitter as "the CB radio of web 2.0" is a pretty funny quote.
That's a variation of the famous "The Internet is just CB radio for the '90s" quote.
http://www.cbc.ca/10th/columns/seemed_gorbould.html
http://www.cbc.ca/10th/columns/seemed_gorbould.html
Why is it that every time some site makes it big, people go apeshit creating articles about the impending mass exodus from the site? Two years ago we saw the daily articles about everyone abandoning Facebook, and that hasn't happened.
Very frankly, twitter is half an idea, and while the half is pretty good, the lack of the second half makes it not keep users.
Even crappy TV shows grow on you. Twitter does not. It's like IRC - there is a large and dedicated group of people that use it, but it's not mainstream. Same with twitter, it will grow to a certain level, but it will be like IRC.
Many people just don't need the constant stream of textual information, and when they get that that's all twitter is, there is no point in staying on.
Even crappy TV shows grow on you. Twitter does not. It's like IRC - there is a large and dedicated group of people that use it, but it's not mainstream. Same with twitter, it will grow to a certain level, but it will be like IRC.
Many people just don't need the constant stream of textual information, and when they get that that's all twitter is, there is no point in staying on.
Old news. People aren't using the website itself -- they're hooking up via mobile clients, SMS, dashboard apps or what have you.
1.) Everyone communicates with handles. CB users: would saying "Snowfox this is the blackwolf will be in your area tomorrow?" Twitter users: it is basically the same "@Snowfox this is the @blackwolf will be in your area tomorrow?"
2.) Every message is short. CB users: Every channel is shared so the conversations are done in short bursts. Twitter users: Can only communicate in 140 characters.
3.) It is communicated on a 1-many basis, any one listening to a specific channel can hear the conversation. CB users: turn their radios to channel 15 and talk everyone listening on channel 15 hears the conversation. Twitter users: have their own channel but anyone can follow them and
4.) The language of the conversation is modified to fit the small message size. CB users: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CB_slang Twitter users: Has twitter specifics like "#" and "RT" also incorporates sms and chat lingos.
There are a couple variables that may make twitter not meet the same demise of CB radios (Cell Phones). Twitter has a global communication net and it is logged. Which means you don't need to be tuned in to not miss something.