twitter me this

I'm feeling conflicted. I'm only about two months in as a Twitter user, or twitterer...whatever, and I'm already having second thoughts. The novelty has certainly worn off, and there's a nagging sense of fatigue (twipression?) every time I sign on. Now that its re-design is about to be unleashed to the public, I'm wondering, what it's all worth?

I spoke to a creative consultant a few weeks back who focused on the arena of cell phone technology. At the time, the Blackberry Torch had just come out, so I asked him what all the hubbub was about. All he could say was, you find that there are very few real innovations, while there is a great deal of overblown and needlessly fawning media coverage. And suddenly, it's starting to make sense.

Twitter is/was/will be a sensation due to it's immediacy and direct link between famous, controversial, or straight-up ridiculous people and the masses. I have to say I enjoy using "the Twitter" (quoth Stephen Colbert) for a news-feed like function. Breaking news, commentary on popular events as they happen, laughing at fake Gary Busey, it's all good and fun in that respect. There are some very creative people doing interesting, informative, and funny things (see @english50cent). But all that aside, it seems to me that more often than not, my friends are passive users, only looking at what other people say rather than contributing. And now I see why.

Although we all have equal access to Twitter, we don't have equal visibility or pull. It's a hierarchy built upon gathering up as many followers as possible so that you are deemed influential, and thus, important in the spectrum ranging from Kanye rants to Bieber fan royalty (which has a social strata of its own). A good deal of people actively using twitter do so because they want to be recognized, promoted, and highlighted. It's a publicity war, waged daily on a desk top. Not only do these stratified recesses of Twitter make people want to say ridiculous things to garner a reaction, it also encourages curtailed responses, poor English, and immediate reactions with little to no reflection. The more I think about it, the less I want the Library of Congress to have a record of every character I type in that kind of environment. And every day, tweets become data sources for advertisers and marketing agencies that use hashtags and retweets like Neilson ratings.

I can't say that I'm giving up on Twitter. (How else will I find out how Kim Kardashian's cleavage is looking today?) As long as people keep talking about it, we will keep wondering if and how it's relevant and if it's making us stupid or smart or incomparably annoying. But in the flux and change of the social media landscape, we're always aware that something new is on it's way to make everything we use now obsolete. I can't help but think I'm wasting an egregious amount of time. Also, that I'm rambling off into the world wide web, my only motive being my own narcissistic will. Maybe passive usage it is. Oh look, that fake Gary Busey is at it again...