Twitter is like an indie band that did well and now is selling out stadiums across the world.
It’s interesting to me that when I first started using Twitter in 2006, the amount of “in-twitter” replies using the @ sign were low. If I came across someone using the @ sign more than a few times a day I tended to not follow or unfollow them because, at first, the platform wasn’t about conversing. Twitter was about answering the simple question of what we all were doing. It was interesting and amazing. The music and giddiness of something new was there.
Now, in 2008 and with 700k members, Twitter is less about telling people what we are doing and more about the “conversation” and follows the aesthetics of an IRC chat. Twitter has become a Rolling Stones-esque performance show with lead singers prancing around on the social stage clad like Bono and jubilant like Mic Jagger. It’s fun to watch, but after a few hours, I’m ready to go home and put the headphones on so I can enjoy the music like I did years ago.
I follow around 600 people, and now seeing a tweet without the @ sign is a rarity, but always gets my attention and makes me nostalgic for the good old days before Twitter made it to the cover of Rolling Stone and we practiced in a garage.
Then isn’t better than now, and the opposite is true. However, now is different than then. I don’t necessarily want Twitter to become a social network because I don’t need or want another social network. I do want to see what other people are doing, though.
Perhaps someone will make an @-less platform where we can just play our music and not have to worry about the crowds or the groupies or the roadies.
How about an acoustic Twitter album?
