the twitter phenomenon

i was averse to twitter for quite some time. it wasn't until @themoneymaven (over there at moneyisjustanidea.com) explained what he saw as the value of twitter that i too stepped into the light. granted, my initial reservations about twitter were 100% correct: you get a LOT of people that tweet absolute nonsense that is of no value. however, there are those special individuals that provide life-changing insights with their tweets. these world-changing tweets can be few and far between, but it is indeed worth it when you catch them. i guess this comes down to a question of efficiency. how long do i have to plough through mediocre tweets before the golden nugget comes through? along the lines of providing a platform you one individual to captivate the world without requiring 'too much' of the world's attention to do it (you only get 140 characters, make it short, sweet and too the point), twitter is GREAT. it is the best way to market and create and propagate branding. i am not so sure that it is just as great when used as a simple means of communication. this brings me to my next point...

(warning, my speculation is coming)

teenagers and twitter. they do not like nor use twitter, opting for more elaborate means to communicate without restriction (sms, myspace, facebook, imeem, youtube). at their age, teenagers do not always see the value in sharing words of wisdom and insightful information. their communication is more social (did you see chris brown's new video) and less like 'did you here about this new way to improve you life.' for their communication needs, twitter is NOT EXPRESSIVE enough. read this nytimes article about this in today's paper [free registration may be required]. notice how the 18-year-old's quote: “[i] just think it’s weird and [i] don’t feel like everyone needs to know what [i]’m doing every second of my life,” she said. you see what i mean. she can only see twitter as another avenue to tell what is going on in her life. she is not thinking about how she could possibly share with the world the great thoughts that she has frequently. i fell into this type of thinking too initially, but i have since been enlightened. thanks to @themoneymaven.

to be fair, younger people (and more mature individuals) may not necessarily see the value of (or be capable of generating) deep thoughts about topics of interest. maybe it is an attention span thing. maybe thinking simply takes too long, and it is much easier and takes less effort to post pictures and videos or comment on people's pages. since sms is so popular with young people (and older people for that matter), it would be interesting to see what type of chatter occupies that space. is it simply gossip? or can you possibly have a deep conversation via sms?

i still find blogging the best way to express ideas and thoughts clearly and thoroughly, but i guess we are adapting to the dumbing down of society with these reduced-attention span communication mediums. i can see twitter as a GREAT platform, but it is NOT a replacement for blogging as some seem to think it is. that is utterly ridiculous to me. what's next, twitter replacing book?!?!?!

p.s. - microsoft poland feels it is NOT good to show black people in ads and photoshopped a black man out in place of a white man--check it out here (note: follow the links to see the actual microsoft pages and notice how the polish site reverted back to the original image)