For the past week I have been thinking about the NY Times piece on Twitter. I hope they revisit it next year. I bet younger users will dwarf its current user base.
We are a generation of text. We text message instead of call. We constantly instant message. I think I’m more likely to instant message my roommates rather than speak when we are in the same room. A large part of our conversation happens on group text messages, and occassionaly on group emails.
This conversation has not yet migrated to Twitter because we don’t know about it. Twitter may actually be quite popular at some college’s— I am just basing this on my observations, not hard data. It’s metcalfe’s law. If my friends aren’t on it, it doesn’t add much value to me.
The teen/tween crowd is more tricky. As a teen, you don’t feel the need to constantly broadcast your location. EDIT: I realize that its more than location, its a conversation, I’m oversimplifying. The only few examples you will see are facebook statuses and away messages. They don’t need to instant message to twitter if an away message accomplishes the same thing. Looking at my buddy list, more and more people appear to be using AIM mobile— instant message to text message.
If you are out on a Friday night, you are probably with all of your friends, and they already know where you are. If you lie to your parents about where you are going, its just another thing for them to hassle you about.
Twitter will bring the value of gossip to the younger crowd. It will be a great way for them to keep up with things when they aren’t on a computer. I don’t think mobile facebook will stand a chance against Twitter.
Facebook might be their network, but that will gradually change.
