Is Twitter just a phase?
Well, it's been about 5 years since it was created, and it still seems to be going strong. But I guess that doesn't really answer the question.
In technology terms, five years isn't all that bad. It seems like every day there are new innovative ideas and products that cause people to declare that "This changes everything!"
Twitter? You can definitely make a pretty good argument that it does. But that doesn't mean Twitter as a website is immortal. However, I think maybe some of its ideas are.
For better or worse, Twitter is responsible for this generation's uncanny ability to access information, and I think it is this lifestyle that will endure long past Twitter as a website. We're now able to know to the minute what is going on in this world. Who won the hockey game? What did the President say today? What did Oprah eat this morning?...like I said: for better or worse.
Musicians can post their music for their fans to hear whenever they want, "Breaking News" is actually a Twitter handle, and a re-tweet from Perez Hilton can get you a thousand new followers...like I said: for better or worse.
This idea that we can get whatever information we want, up to the minute, is something that I don't think people can do without now that they have it. It would be like being given an iPod Touch only to have it taken away and be replaced with a portable boom box.
Whether being able to access this information so quickly and easily is good or bad remains to be seen. It causes us to wonder what's going to happen to the newspaper. Will it ever die? What about face to face interaction? Maybe the "water cooler" will be replaced by the "Don't bother getting up from your desk, let's just tweet about it". If it sounds like I'm using loaded language it's because I don't really know how I feel about it yet as I've mentioned before.
Nevertheless, Twitter seems like it's not going anywhere for the time being, but chances are it probably will. And as for our virtual All-Access Pass goes, that may very well be immortal.
Saying all of that... you can follow me on Twitter: @joeytheghost97
