I am not really a Trekkie, but the parallels between the classic Star Trek (the original television show) and Twitter are interesting.
Basically the plot involves Tribbles, “pregnant from birth” creatures who reproduce at a rate that makes rabbits seem darn right frigid. They can be introduced into an eco-system and decimate the supply of food in very short order.
Tweets are the same thing.
They are as cute as a bunny, little and innocuous creatures of only 140 characters (aren’t they c-u-t-e?) that can eat up your time and the Internet’s bandwidth with the alacrity of piranhas.
In the beginning it seemed like such a good idea, this micro-blogging tool that asked the question, “What are you doing,” and later amended to “What’s happening,” probably because the answers to the original query were too vapid and inane. I mean, who cares if you have an extra five egg yolks left over or “I just unlocked the “Adventurer” badge on @foursquare!” Save it for Facebook.
People follow people on Twitter because they have something to say. People friend people on Facebook because they want status updates. Give your audience what it wants.
Twitter lost its way, IMHO, when it went from a microblogging platform to a microdetail-of-your-every-move platform, when it lost sight of its original purpose. I think I am not alone either.
After stunning growth — nearly 10-fold in 2009, according to the WSJ — visits to the Twitter site have stagnated at around 21 million.
Why am I not surprised? Few tweets reflect any meaningful thoughts at all. One can argue that “meaningful” can’t happen in 140 characters, but some have shown it can. Twitter must move away from the jejune back to the reasons it was worth reading in the first place.
The Tribbles were taken care of when they were beamed aboard a Klingon ship, where “they’ll be no tribble at all,” according to Scotty.
Where’s a Klingon ship when you need one?
Related posts:
Owner, News Design School