Surely there are things we don’t need to know!
Forget the blogosphere. OMG that’s sooo 2008. The new sphere we need to interested in (apparently) is the statusphere. Leading the way is the relatively new kid on the social media block, Twitter. Twitter started in San Francisco in 2006. Like most social media it’s growing-and growing quick. Latest estimates suggest it has around 6 million users worldwide. Perhaps not surprisingly almost 50% are in the US. According to internet metrics site Alexa though, only 2.8% of users are Australian. Twitter is focussed primarily on one thing. To participate users must answer only one question, “What are you doing now?” (hence the term statusphere). Users have just 140 characters to answer. Now it doesn’t surprise me that Twitter has gained traction in the US. My observation is that culturally, Americans are programmed, at a moments notice, to share what they’re thinking and feeling. Freedom of speech is a big part of the American psyche; they freely offer their opinion. Observe and listen to the average American and you’ll find they think out loud. They have no problem letting their ‘inner monologue’ out. Now don’t get me wrong this isn’t a rant about Americans. They’re expressive, and personally I like that. But let’s contrast that with the average Aussie. Are we laconic? Yes. Expressive? Not so sure. Up for constant mindless chatter? Definitely not. When I talk and explain Twitter to most Aussies they respond with ‘Why would you
bother?’; ‘Who cares!’; or ’I don’t really get it’. So my question is not so much about whether Twitter will end up being a global success. It’s well and truly on its way. Nor is this a comment on whether it has social currency. There are lots of people talking about it. My questions are more about:
- Whether Twitter will have sustained success in Australia and I don’t just mean attract initial interest or subscription (with all the talk about it, it’s sure to gain increased trial) but what about ongoing and frequent use?
- Do tools such as Twitter and Facebook (which recently changed its key question to“what’s on your mind?”- I suspect to keep up with the statusphere notion) have the power to profoundly change our culture?
- Does Twitter and future incarnations lead to a more narcissitic national psyche, where there’s an assumption that people give a stuff about what’s on my mind and what I’m doing wherever and whenever I deign to fill them in.
What do you think?
It may surprise you to hear this, but I’m a big Twitter fan.
There was an earthquake in Melbourne today. I knew about it within 10 seconds of it happening, thanks to Twitter.
It’s more than a channel, it’s a platform and a network. It’s going to be (if it isn’t already) the glue that unites what all of the other social wannabes should have been.
It’s a social repository and barometer – if/when it gets mainstream traction, it will perhaps even rival Google in this regard.
Big call?
I agree that Americans as a people are trained from birth to tell anyone who’ll listen what’s on their mind and that’s why Aussies have this love/hate relationship with the US. We want to be like them (to a point) but don’t want to seem like a bunch of self-obsessed wankers.
But I’m not so sure that Facebook and Twitter haven’t been comparatively successful in Australia. I mean 2.8% is ~170,000 users from a population of 20 something million – which actually means we’re overrepresented on a global scale. We’ve just got a much smaller population. I wonder how many Americans would say they ‘don’t get it’ or ‘don’t care’ if you asked them? Quite a lot I imagine (particularly in the Red states).
And when it comes to whether social networking will change our culture, I dunno. My feeling is that as the younger generation grows up it will just be second nature to be constantly ‘connected’ – so it’s not gonna change Australia’s culture all by itself. It’s just a small part of a very big world of communication and technology that will evolve over time – like going from radio to tv and fax to email.
I can’t wait to see where it all leads though. Hopefully we’ll end up with some more technology/apps/portals that save us time instead of helping us procrastinate…
Great post, I’ll kick off shall I?
1. Ongoing and frequent use will depend on whether users can create meaningful relationships. The idea behind Twitter isn’t ’shout and broadcast’ – it is ‘invoke and engage’. Twitter open up conversations, opinions, thoughts on what you want to engage in. It’s not like small talk where you have to be involved – drop in or drop out at anytime, it’s up to you. So, if users connect to people that they find with similar interests and opinions it will have the Facebook effect of feeling they have to maintain usage to keep these friendships alive. And this is happening now and will only increase as ‘real life’ friends start connecting via Twitter.
2. Absolutely. I thing the Twitter as we know it will be vastly different to the Twitter we know in two years time. By roping into other applications (ala Facebook Connect) and using mobile/gps devices we will see Twitter change the way we communicate with each other (I predict it will overtake a lot of SMS and email conversations).
3. Sure there are people on there that tweet “I just painted my nails lime green” but they aren’t the ones who will benefit. The ones that will are those that engage and are interested in what others are doing as well -thus, creating relationships. I find that explaining it as a communication device not a broadcasting device is the way that people can see the benefit and future use of Twitter.
Dont get me wrong, I can see the faults and the hesitation to jump into bed with Twitter – but I can’t see it developing into a communication device which will significantly influence us.