Disclaimer
The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent anyone else's view in any way, including those of my employer.
© Copyright 2009
The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent anyone else's view in any way, including those of my employer.
© Copyright 2009
If you’re a Twitter user you’ve probably noticed an influx of new users in the last few weeks. Need proof? Check this out. Twitter has become mainstream with plenty of mentions on national news and other mass media sources. Which is all awesome for the Twitter folks as they shuffle to find a way to become profitable. However, as most hard-core geeks know, when a tool that was considered cool to those “in the know” goes mainstream it often looses some of its punch.
Now, I’m not saying that Twitter isn’t great. Nor am I saying that just because non-geeky folks are using it that it’s time for the nerds to bail. Twitter is way too handy for that. What I am saying is that with a huge influx of users it seems to have lost a bit of its coziness. When a person like me, who is no Scoble or Neil Gaiman or Stephen Frye, gets a couple dozen of new followers a day, you know that something is happening.
So, do you feel like I do? Have you sensed a shift in Twitter? An influx of users? Is it still as cozy as it used to be? Can you control your network well enough to shape your experience?
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Twitter is scalable because of its most important feature: the unfollow.
No matter what the community conventions or who is using it, each person retains control over what to post and who to follow (or not follow). That makes it “shark proof.”
I’ve never felt that coziness, but when I started looking at who was following me I became a little suspicious and a little curious. This was last year some time, when I had read that PR and marketing people were using Twitter “professionally.” I’m rather guarded about ME-Potential-Consumer-0f-your-product/service and made a mental note of that trend. I don’t know where it’s at today, but I axed followers who didn’t have a purpose I could commune with.
I just added about 5 people to my list, now a modest 39. “Heavy-weights” I’m hoping to glean some nuggets from likes of Danah Boyd, Mimi Ito and Lessig.
My Twitter network complements my Facebook. It’s more professionally oriented while FB tends to blur the boundaries there.
I haven’t sense this recent shift, no but I do think that we tweet, like we blog with some kind of audience in mind. At least I do.
I’m not sure ‘coziness’ is something I’ve ever felt, or wanted to feel, with Twitter. It has a good mix of friendliness and edginess – at least, MY Twitter network does. And that’s the point, as Kevin says – we remain in control of our Twitter experience to a great extent.
I’m happy if more people get on Twitter. It will make it potentially even more useful. I don’t use FB at all and never plan to. But I wish more of my higher ed colleagues were tweeting. I was at a lunch last week in NYC where Sree Sreenivasan was talking to a room full of higher ed people. Who’s on FB? About 3/4 of the room. Who’s on LinkedIn? About a 1/4 to 1/3. Who’s on Twitter? Me (and Sree, of course). I’d really welcome that changing.