What would happen if tomorrow Twitter ceased to exist? Can you imagine that world? Yesterday I wrote about what it takes to have vision, and part of the skill set in being a visionary is the ability to react with and imagine a world that is constantly changing. So, in the interest of putting a practical spin on my theoretical post, let’s have ourselves a thought experiment.
When Noise Became Beautiful
After all the craziness died down, oh and there would be craziness, what would you do without Twitter? For many of us, Twitter has become an essential tool. It is the place where we market ourselves, our blog posts, our brands. It is the place where we do the majority of our sharing, of capturing the knowledge we want, and a lot of knowledge we don’t. Twitter functions as our little cheat sheet to life. Twitter is also the place where we form and build our communities. It is also our chat room, a really big, really public chat room. The beauty is in the cacophony.
But what happens when we take that cacophony away? Would there just be silence? Or would we migrate to other tools? Would some innovative firm start working on Twitter tomorrow, even if the idea never existed and no one had ever thought it up? Or was Twitter just a once-in-a-lifetime idea that existed only in one specific time and place and could never really be thought up again?
What would our society look like without Twitter? Rick Sanchez’s CNN screen would sure look a lot different. And pity all those poor brands and business who were just figuring the thing out. Would they go back to outbound marketing? Would they cease all authentic and transparent communication? Would they retreat into their holes?
And what would you do without Twitter? Are you addicted to Twitter? To the ease of it, the simplicity, the elegance of the applications, like Tweetdeck or Seesmic or Tweetie, that we’ve all grown to love and appreciate.
Twitter Turned Eavesdropping Into an Art Form
Are you addicted to the ease with which you are able to dip in and out of a particular stream? The absolute non-thought of eavesdropping on conversations that don’t involve you? Would you start walking up to people chatting quietly in the corner of coffee shops with snarky, ironic or funny commentary, whip out your laptop and show them a website that described exactly what they were just talking about?
And what about community? Where the would we go to find our communities? Or to have communities form around us? Facebook? Puhleeeeeze! That is for amateurs and Coca Cola. Can you imagine having conversations on a fan page?
What about other tools? Would we all start using Google Wave or Google Buzz? Is that kind of the point? The fact that Twitter has so changed our culture that there are legitimate copycats out there?
Here is the brute reality. Twitter has so totally transformed our culture, that if it were to suddenly disappear tomorrow, the answers to all the above questions would not be easily answered.
Image Source: carrotcreative on Flickr
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I always say this to everyone – if I had to give up all of my social networks except one it woul be Foursquare. If Twitter disappeared the only thing I would miss are the people, not the news. Foursquare is essentially at it’s core Twitter with real offline interactions.
what about the community aspect of twitter? how would you find your communities? how would they find you?
I think you are right in that not only is Twitter an essential tool for social media, but as a whole it confirms that social media is not a fad. Good article.
.-= Wendy Gatlin´s last blog ..Social Media is like exercise =-.
I think people would be so upset by Twitter’s dissapearance that they would create and migrate to another service that is a clone of it. Call it the Napster Effect. When Napster was huge it was HUGE, and everyone used it. When it got shut down, everyone like roaches scampered around clamoring to the next best alternative. Once a useful service is created that fills a nearly indispensable niche, the company or app or program can die, but the function never will. It just moves on.
.-= BrandonJD´s last blog ..Piece: Wintergreen =-.
Hmm, this is a tough one.
I use Twitter for a lot of things: networking, news, promotions etc. It’s a integral part of my everyday life.
Four Square I refuse to try because I don’t like the idea of people knowing where I am, and I used to be an intense Facebook user until they really started changing things last year.
This is one of those questions that really make you ponder our dependence, not only on the Internet, but our dependence on social media and the outlets it provides us with … for free.
Would you pay for Twitter? I would.
Would you pay for Facebook? I would not.
The thing is, let’s say, my squishy scenario happens, and I pay for Twitter, will it be the same? Probably not … because I don’t see the masses paying for it, and thus that would kill the spread of information. I would only see the hardcore users paying for it. But that being said, when you think about it, aren’t those the people you want to stay in touch with and whose streams you want to continue to read anyway?
The whole idea and all the other possibilities make the mind wander.
Good article!
.-= Sasha H. Muradali´s last blog ..DVD, Blu-Ray, Avatar, Blu-Ray, DVD, Avatar… *squeee* =-.
Sasha, great comment. I would pay for Twitter as well. I love that thought. Really appreciate you stopping by. One thing regarding foursquare: it is a double opt in system which means that you don’t have to friend anyone that you wouldn’t want knowing where you are, creepy ex boyfriends for instance. You could, technically, just allow your five closest girlfriends into your circle.
I would give foursquare a shot, its pretty addictive and I’ve found it tremendously useful for finding good nuggets around my city.
Z
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