Thursday, April 16, 2009

Dude, where’s my Twitter?

By Julie Tangen
Celebrity Ashton Kutcher leveraged Twitter for a publicity stunt this week, challenging CNN to a ‘popularity contest’ to see who can reach the 1 million followers mark first. If he wins, Kutcher says he will "ding-dong ditch" CNN founder Ted Turner's house. While its a pretty funny thought, I can't help but think gimmicks like this might ruin the Twitter experience in the long run. The technology presents us with a way to instantly communicate and listen to experts, influencers, and people who are making real contributions to society—in addition to fun stuff, or whatever is top of mind with friends. Twitter is part of something that has the potential to change the way we all keep in touch; let's hope it doesn't get so polluted with noise that its potential power gets diminished. And, fingers crossed that once Kutcher reaches his one million mark, he’ll have something important to say to everyone. “Dude.”
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love Twitter but as a novelty it has officially jumped the shark. Welcome to the Oprah effect. Check out: http://venturebeat.com/2009/04/17/thanks-to-oprah-we-can-finally-stop-talking-about-twitter/