Thursday, December 9, 2010

Wither Twitter?

Adweek reports this morning that a mere 8% of the US population uses one of our latest "this will change everything"-technologies, Twitter. http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3i9a98d83b8ff950ac27aeab8bc177069e

The same study that reported this 8% statistic had reported in September that 24% of Americans used Twitter or services like Twitter.

My point here is simple and is really not about Twitter at all.

It's about the tyranny of those who but too much stake in the latest transformational technology, who buy statistics, and who believe that new technologies can change the fundamental neural capacities of humans in a year, whereas even the most vociferous evolutionist would say that fundamental human changes take something like 10,000 years.

If Twitter were really to change our brains, how we take in and send out information, we should be looking forward to a generation of humans born with enlarged thumbs.

Change does not happen that fast.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

My guess is that 8% is also the rate of extreme narcissism that one would find in the general population if you looked into the records kept by the American Psychiatric Association.

Anonymous said...

Its less about the universe of pure numbers (percent of total population) and more about influence. If 4 percent of those twittering are the most influential in their areas/fields/interests etc that's what counts.

Isn't that the trend in marketing anyway? Advocacy and Evangelism that leads to share growth for a brand?

Mary

george tannenbaum said...

Interesting points, Mary.

mary said...

i can see your points Mary, but im wondering how much influence the influencers got if the people to be influenced are not on twitter? it looks like a bubble to me.

apart from that... are those people who use twitter the influencers? even if its half of it or 4 percent? before the internet, the so called influencers were the quality-newspaper readers. at least when it came to political opinion. and that is what i learned. i dont think such a model relating to media usage can be layed out today. its all too cluttered. which shifts focus to the message and product, and away from constructed brand, at least in general. im just ramling away here...

i think it is very hard to identify influencers anyway. i do not think that people can be described as influencers in general. influence depends on subjects, relationships, media etc pp

i, for one, am very skecptical when it comes to engeneered evangelism and advocacy, or any 'marketing trend'. so maybe i am not the one to talk. especially after the drink i had ;)

mary said...

good lord, forgive me the typos please ;)