Twitter.com - Wed, Bed or Dead?

Ok, I tried it. I signed-up and I played around with it. I followed and had people follow me. I posted my little updates and I tried the phone thing.

And after all that I am still asking myself WHAT THE HELL IS THE POINT OF IT?????

If you use a mobile cell phone its not cheap. Information is very limited. If you follow more than about three people all you see is a wall of endless inane text snippets like "I just brushed my pubic hair" or "the vaseline worked in the end". What have I got from my month of twitter....absolutely nothing, not even a sense of community or association. The whole thing feels like a crazy forum without threaded posting capability - absolute chaos.

It all feels horribly like its there purely because it is seen as a bit different, avant guarde. Could it be an example of that old human need to be one up on others by doing something cool that they don't really understand? The desire to have people look over at you curiously so you can feel superior because you are 'in' on something they are not?

Twitter seems to be the ultimate example of functionality for the sake of it based around a rather ludicrous idea. But despite this obvious flaw it has still managed to get into the mainstream 'buzz'. Why? Because it is so different? Because it is Web 2.0 through and through and is therefore somehow relevant? I suspect its because the industry is chucking its name and URL everywhere because they want to predict 'the next big thing' creating a buzz where people have to see what it is all about. A manufactured popularity so that industry blogs and 'experts' can say "I told you it was great, now listen to me...."

Apparently Twitter have just appointed their first spam marshall. All I can say is, don't get comfy in your new role, you may be looking for a new job real soon. Twitter you see is spammers paradise. The only things that stand out from the reams of nonsensical snippets are URL's - kind of making it ideal! It is a great place to spam as the soundbite style of it make it easy to slam the spam into the site's 'twitters'. My prediction is that as people get bored with texting random rubbish to twitter the only thing on there will be spam.

One question is which is actually more useful to people, the spam which could actually contain some interesting or worthwhile links, or the endless drivel people post? The irony could turn out to be that the twitters are more pointless and time-wasting to read than the spam. Do I waste seconds of my valuable life following a link that could actually be useful in someway, or do I read about how someone I have never met, and don't care about, has lost their car keys?

If I am missing the point then please tell me why. I know a lot of people who love social networking stuff. But they use things like facebook, where they can connect, message, show off photo's, comment and create little lists of friends like stamps in a book. I cannot imagine any of them using twitter and I would love to here one of them explain WHY they had started using it beyond saying it was 'cool'.

My own site, wedbedordead.com is a fun site. It is a fully-fledged social networking site with profiles, interaction, micro-blogging etc and also has the added piece of fun in the inclusion of the wedbedordead (snog marry avoid) game. Members get to see their stats and laugh, on top of being able to interact. Its light-hearted and at times silly. BUT it has a point to it. You can play the game (which is amazingly addictive considering it is purely a ratings game) and build a network that has some value in it. This is not some bitter attack because twitter is more popular, I merely offer it as an example I am familiar with to highlight my points. One thing I do predict is that people will still be checking their stats on wedbedordead.com long after twitter dies through user apathy .

Twitter seems to accomplish none of the basic rules for social networking for me. It does not allow levels of depth, or allow utilisation of multiple tools as you want them. You have one path on twitter - follow and be followed and twitter. I suspect is is popular because of the online social media industry, rather than word of mouth between real surfing folk.

So drum roll, and I think you can probably guess where I am going with this one already....

WED - No chance. If you marry Twitter you will be screaming for a divorce by Christmas.
BED - It's a one night stand that you wake up next to with a headache then leave quietly before it wakes up.

So I am afraid for me, Twitter is a DEAD. It is to be avoided as the worst type of industry-generated hype. A one-trick pony who will soon be disappearing off to the dog food factory.


To play the game 'wed bed or dead' then visit the site at www.wedbedordead.com and sign-up for your free account in two minutes right now.