So the O-Bomb dropped on Twitter today when @oprah herself sent her first tweet. The world gasped. There’s been a lot (A LOT) of talk this week about Oprah joining the ranks of Twitter. As you can imagine, this has mostly been a negative response from the tech community. The consensus seems to be that celebrities, and mainstream media in general, is polluting the pure waters of a service that once catered only to geeks and the like. Just like that we lost our niche little messaging community.
This perceived erosion of value in Twitter started long before Oprah came onboard, however. @britneyspears (I know what you’re thinking about Brit, just give me a second to get to it), @mrskutcher (Demi), and @aplusk (Ashton) were here first. Celebrities aren’t the problem with Twitter though. Two other issues are causing Twitter to have less value to technologists everywhere.
The first is spam and lacking security. While Twitter spam seems to be on the decline these days the attacks on the Twitter infrastructure are still present (source one and two). Protecting the infrastructure is key to Twitter’s growth and with it becoming a mainstream messaging service this is imperative.
The second issue facing Twitter is the “artificial” underbelly. Take Britney Spears above (I told you I’d get to this), she isn’t the one on Twitter, her PR firm is. Fine, it’s a great way to promote Brit but it’s complete misrepresentation. Twitter began as a community for real people, not marketing specialists looking to pimp products or individuals. This, to me, is the biggest problem with Twitter and all the exploitation that goes along with it. I know there’s never going to be a solution to the problem but it hurts the sincerity of a service which, for the most part, wants to engage real people at the other end of the profile.
Another artificial occurrence hurting Twitter is the competitiveness over inflation of followers. This week Ashton Kutcher challenged CNN to a race to see who could get one million followers first. Is it fun? Sure. However, something like this relates directly back to my issue with the artificial nature of Twitter. Many of these people aren’t following Ashton because the want to, they simply want to be part of the grand-standing. Worse yet, CNN didn’t even have its own profile so they bought one loaded with a high number of followers to compete against Ashton. This rabid pursuit of numbers even caused TechCrunch to ask if Twitter should “turn off” the follower number to public viewing. I for one would love nothing more.
Oh, incidentally, Ashton won.
I could find words to express my frustration over this recent bid for Twitter prestige but I think CNET’s Buzz Out Loud host, Molly Wood (big fan!) spoke for me when she tweeted “Twitter has jumped the shark” upon hearing the news about Ashton. She’s right, Twitter has officially fallen from the grace of the tech community. Big media and ego-driven celebrities have sullied the Twitter name.
All that said, I’m of the opinion that all hope is not lost. The greatest thing about Twitter is the fact you choose who you follow. If you don’t want to hear Ashton ranting about construction workers starting work too early next door you don’t have to. Twitter is a self-serve ecosystem that you build. Just follow the people who provide the information you are looking for and ignore the rest. It’s that simple. No matter how much noise the media makes, you set the Twitter volume depending on who you follow.
Yes, Oprah is now on Twitter but the end times shockingly did not arrive. It’s easy to get annoyed by all the press over Twitter (especially those who keeping claiming “they don’t get it”…it’s just another form of instant messaging people) but don’t lose hope. You control the quality of Twitter no matter how many attention whore celebrities (or their PR firms) sign up. Moreover, the real Twitters know that content is king and numbers are irrelevant. Let Ashton have his one million follower crown. It’s importance is as fake as @britneyspears.
Bob Starr, code named Starbuck, is a geek with a passion for film journalism and technology. You can follow Bob on Twitter (
