The Atlantic has made the call, at least asked the question.
I have no idea, as I am not a real twitter fan, never have been, simply because I do not see the sustainable business model yet, although there is no doubt of the disruptive impact of twitter on traditional media.
The thought of spending more of my most valuable and finite resource, time, on a platform that can deliver numbers, and can deliver with work some semblance of a community has never grabbed me, as the opportunity cost just seemed too high.
Surviving on advertising in a world where advertising space is now close to infinite, and thus almost worthless unless you can employ a degree of targeting that requires a degree of engagement that usually only comes from an existing relationships seems fraught with the sorts of hooks snake-oil salesmen use to catch the unwary.
Perhaps I am just getting old.
What twitter has done, which has benefited all of us is to highlight the value of condensing a message into its core, distilling out all the verbal trappings we often add in that really add no value. In addition, there is no doubt that the immediacy of twitter has played a vital role in getting information out about nasty, momentous, and often funny things that happen. The first time this was evident to me was the London bombings, when news came out via twitter way before any formal network could work out what had happened, and since then, Twitter has been the newsbreaker on almost every occasion.
So, I do not think twitter is dying, just trying to grow up.
Thanks John,
What I did not say, and should have, is that with all its faults, twitter is a formidable searchable crowdsourced database
On the button again!!