Is Twitter Useless, Asinine, or The Crocs of The Web?

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I've been on Twitter since February of  this year and looking back—it has become a medium I am very comfortable with.  I use it to share links, alert people in my network, provide updates, read news headlines—and yes do that conversation thing commonly known as listening and talking.  It's become a part of my daily routine—and I use it when it makes sense for me.

But Twitter isn't for everybody—I've called it the Crocs of the internet many times.  Just like Crocs, you either love it, hate it or don't see the point.  Twitter got so hot, so quickly that many of us thought it would have been replaced by now.  But it seems to keep chugging along.  So the question is—do you still love it, still hate it, or simply think it's asinine?

Oh, and I'm having a Big Mac.

Comments

[William Couch]

I joined right around the same time, and I still love it. It's been interesting for me to see how my usage of the service has changed since I first got on - from logging personal activity to personal thoughts to links to now a mix of all three and then some. I have to say though, it's weird - I don't think twice about whether or not I should post something to it. I've reached the point where I feel like I instinctively know when and what I want to post, and that's both intriguing and a little creepy. That it has become such an integral part of my day (I routinely check Gmail, Facebook and Twitter throughout the day) also demonstrates to me that it's fulfilling some void I never knew existed - which doesn't mean the service is frivolous, but rather is almost, dare I say, enriching? And, the excellent mobility of the service doesn't help the addiction, either...

Also, I love the analogy of the service to Crocs. That's really the best way to describe it.

[Ike]

It's not a Croc. Crocs are only for your feet.

Twitter is a sheet. You can wear it as a toga, a sarong, a wrap, or you can just towel off with it and throw it in the washer.

Twitter is used in so many different fashions, I can't begin to give a universal rating. And I can't yet predict HOW any particular individual will go with it.

[David Armano]

William,

I too experienced a similar evolution of using the medium. I'm almost in a groove now and don't feel pressured to use it or not. It's convenient and there for me when I need it. Like any good application that serves a purpose.

[DA]

Ike,

I like your analogy. There is a certain flexibility that the sheet metaphor captures. But I still like Crocs because of the strong feelings people have toward the app. No one I know hates sheets or thinks their asinine. ;-)

[Darren]

It just hasn't proven sticky for me. The adjective I'd apply is 'trivial', or maybe 'trifling'.

I like your diagram, but was struck by your note that there's no right or wrong way to use it.

I started pushing my blog posts out to my Twitter account--that was pretty much the only thing I used it for--and somebody emailed me and told me that was bad Twitter etiquette. I told them politely that they should unfollow me, because I had no immediate plans to use the channel for anything else.

[Charlie Gower]

I didn't really 'get' Twitter until I began using it.

You've got to dip your toe in the water to check the tempreature after all.

Now I love it and would detach from all other networks without any feeling of loss but I wouldn't drop Twitter.
It's so flexible, everybody appropriates it to their own uses, which is it's great selling point. It can be whatever you want it to be.

[Todd Defren]

I think the key to loving Twitter is to keep it present at all times, e.g. via sidebar apps like Tweetbar, Twitbin, etc. If my browser's open (which is 24/7), then the conversation is ongoing while I'm doing all my other stuff. If I had to proactively visit Twitter.com I'd drop it. As it is, though, thru a sidebar app I can jump in/out as the mood strikes.

I dig it (but then again, I may have ADD or at least "Continuous Partial Attention Disorder.")

I think Twitter has yet to hit its stride, too. For example I used a post today to show how a Big Company could be using Twitter to create/inform ad-hoc communities. Maybe a crazy idea but as the Social Web grows in influence, the marketers must find a way to participate in a non-exploitive way. Fish where the fish are, but use the right bait...

Okay now I am rambling. Sorry. Need more coffee.

[Jason Falls]

I've started to enjoy it, though I'm still waiting on someone to tell me what the fascination is. I follow you, among others, and even have a few folks tracking me. Since I can't fathom why anyone would want to know what I'm doing all day, I try to be either funny or informative (link share). I'm anxious to find a good use for it, thought.

[Ike]

True, David - but a Croc can't "become" something else that is functional with so little work.

If I offered you a Toga, and you hated Togas, you'd reject it. Unless you were open-minded enough to see it as a liner for the dog's house, or a drop-cloth for painting, or a ghost costume for your kid's Halloween.

Those who "hate" Twitter actually hate a very narrow application of the service, with no thought at all about its flexibility and versatility. Twitter is nimble, amorphous, and existential. It is not what it is, but what you want it to be.

(p.s. - I fully intend to steal the contents of this comment for an upcoming post on Now Is Gone.)

[Dan]

I've been twittering for about 6 months and loving it. A lot of brands still don't get how to use it properly, but that's fine...I can jut turn them off if they start annoying me.

[phil gillman]

Still love it.
I love the fact that twitter allows me to follow what people are thinking, and engage in spontaneous asynchronous conversations.
I think that is the brilliant piece of twitter... it allows for group conversations to happen at the speed of the readers, comments come and go, ideas percolate, and often people then write, podcast, connect and/or create based upon things that they read/discuss in twitter.
Additionally, it allows for a bit of personal level tag along, wherein people can follow the happenings and mindsets of friends and acquaintances that they may not often see.
So yes, I still think it's brilliant.

[Clay Parker Jones]

Ike -

That's an f'n awesome way to think about Twitter, and about web apps in general. Hell, maybe even about how we see marketing 'tools' in total.

Good stuff.

- Clay

[DA]

OK, I concede—Toga is pretty cool.

Toga... Toga... Toga... ;-)

[Mike Rohde]

I find Twitter most useful when I have a limited set of friends I care about sharing my thoughts with. I don't know that I'd enjoy Twitter the way Scoble uses it, but hey, it works for him. In a way, the flexibility is the attraction.

Twitter is an odd service — not really email, nor blogging, nor completely SMS, it's a hybrid tool that's open to being used as users decide.

Reminds me of the William Gibson quote:

"The street finds its own uses for things"

[Dan Schawbel]

It's not only simple to use, but the platform is designed so there is no learning curve. The mobile ability always puts you in touch with the latest updates and allows you to update others and what you are doing no matter where you are located.

[Matt J McDonald]

I think it's very Crocy (Crocish?). I've been playing around on twitter for a while now and, to be honest, I still don't really "get it". I'm sure it's fun if you have a lot of your friends going back and forth on it, but as it seems now, it's just a link dump with an honest line or two every once in a while.

[Lewis Green]

David,

I am a non-user and don't get it. But as I read your take and these comments, maybe that's the point. If we don't try something, we might never get it. Still... I wonder.

[DA]

Lewis, out of all people you should probably try it for the reason that your friends on on it. Plus we would probably talk much more. :-)

[J Kellogg]

There is nothing useless on the internet! Nothing!
http://www.auto-view.net/

[Connie Reece]

Still love Twitter. Portability is a key feature; my network goes where I go. I've used it for marketing my blog, for making professional contacts, as a reference desk (who knows how to ...?), for keeping in touch, and for plain old fun. Twitter is what you make of it.

[Kelley Burrus]

At the behest of my good friend and social media guru, Connie Reece www.everydotconnects.com, I signed up for Twitter. After 161 messages in one evening, frankly I was worn out....and quite distracted. The next day I opted out to receive messages from all but three people. The result? I got lonely....very quickly. I did NOT like being left out of the conversation....however insignificant. What I eventually found out was that the "golden nuggets" of information and inspiration which land in my hands approx. 6% of the time on Twitter have become PRICELESS. They have allowed me to view situations differently, approach challenges more completely and oh yeah....find the best crabcake in Maryland should I happen to pass through.

[Landon]

With Facebook and Myspace both adding status update applications to their social networking I find no use for twitter. Maybe I am missing the point, but that's what I am searching for. I have all my friends on both of those social networks that can do the same thing as twitter and more.

[Eric]

Most definitely a Croc. A big orange Croc.

[LaughingOutLoud]

(Yeah, I know this post is old) The ironically hilarious thing about this post is that Crocs is actually ON Twitter!

www.twitter.com/crocsinc

[Richard]

I think Twitter is the most over hyped and useless app on the web.

[Fong Lee]

Twitter is nothing more than Facebook updates for mobile.

If Facebook added mobile update capability, Twitter would be out of business.