I wonder if the lifecycle of my Twitter usage is typical? When I first got into it at SXSW in Austin last year, I used it sparingly. I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to say so I just noted when I was headed to something related to the conference.
As the summer went on my usage morphed into updating several times a day about my actions, noting when I posted something of interest, noting when I read something of interest, reporting breaking news, and even asking questions. From there Twitter took on a weird little micro-chat life of its own and I was right there with it.
As Fall has found me busier than either the proverbial one-armed paper hanger or the one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest, I find I am using Twitter much less. I now drop in every couple days and read what has been going on. Sometimes I respond to things of interest and sometimes I even drop a tweet just to let everyone know I’m alive.
So I ask you – is the coolness factor of Twitter wearing off or will it pick up again when I don’t have as many irons in the fire? What is your usage and how has it changed?
I haven’t noticed a drop for me and for most of the people that I follow. In fact new people are coming in and my circle is expanding.
I think you were never fully into Twitter from the beginning. You have always wondered how it would fit into your online life. I think you may just be finding that it doesn’t fit in with how you want to use the internet and that is fine. There are so many social spaces and people need to find the ones that work best for them.
It all depends on the community around you. I too joined during SXSWi and dropped off until the local community around me reached a mass.
Because I am always on the road, it is a perfect tool for keeping up with folks at home and developing relationships with new friends.
I find myself dropping out of twitter whenever I get busy. As I gain more and more followers, it gets more difficult to keep up through the day. If I don’t pay attention for a couple hours, I can rack up over 100 text messages. For that reason, it’s easier to turn it off than stay tuned in. Although I still love twitter, it’s increasingly difficult to follow everybody.
If there’s a drop, it could be in my use of emails and IM clients. Twitter now centralizes most of my digital life.
Martin