I’ve just broken a year of being a twitter user according to twitterholic.com. Since then the top-followed twitterers have evolved from internet celebs to hollywood ones. I’d say with these two recent events, twitter has really ascended into the mainstream spotlight:
- Ashton Kutcher reached over 1 million followers [link]
- Oprah has featured twitter on her show [link]
I don’t follow these new world celebs for a couple reasons. One is they are not interesting or don’t really have anything of real interest to say. I’ve heard and can reasonably guess that some PR assistants are managing these folks’ social networking sites like facebook or myspace. My guess is that most celebs are interfacing with twitter more directly than traditional mediums. Sure, celebs are real persons too, but for some reason, their twitter feeds do not seem anymore interesting than the next person’s. The idea that a million strangers want in on this stream-of-randomness is a bizarre concept. Maybe the same driving force behind the tabloid sales drive flocks of followers to these celebs. They want whatever they can get straight from the source.
Twitter really is the delicate art and science of microblogging. You following someone is like subscribing to their RSS feed. It’s personal.
Reason two is I believe they have hijacked a service that was once personal and have pimped it out myspace-style. I don’t even think businesses joining twitter was a disservice. In fact it proved to make some companies add a personal touch to their customer service. I feel like we have sacrificed something here when the news-media’s perception of twitter has become a followers-race. Although Ev Williams has not sold twitter to Google yet (like he did with blogger), one cannot help but feel like twitter has already sold out.
I am glad that that such a business can thrive in these times. Web 2.0, nonetheless. I guess I feel that twitter was one of those web applications that brought you closer to people and not farther away. With the twittersphere expanding out to the stars, so to speak, maybe that cozy pond feeling has been lost in an ocean.
