Let’s face it, Twitter has begun to go down hill, and fast. What was once a promising social networking site has really started to lose all appeal. This isn’t saying that Twitter is not popular. In fact, Twitter is probably gaining in popularity, perhaps even reaching its peak. Every day, 460,000 new accounts are created on the website and 140 million Tweets are sent. However, this rise in activity is definitely contributing to its downfall.
1. Instantaneous Tweet Loss
Twitter’s unfiltered Timeline has become nearly unmanageable as it is rapidly filled with Tweets. Especially during the busiest Tweeting hours, it seems that as soon as a Tweet hits the Timeline, it is forever lost in an infinitely deep Tweet abyss. To provide a comparison, Facebook’s Newsfeed is much simpler and easier to navigate, which might have to do with the algorithm designed to show posts from users you care about most. Personally, I don’t know if I’ve ever received a Retweet or reply when a @mention wasn’t used more than fifteen minutes after posting. Also, ontributing to Tweet loss is the abundance of pointless and repetitive Tweets.
2. Useless Banter & Excessive Tweeting
In my opinion, Twitter should be used to spread ideas, random thoughts, articles, and news. It shouldn’t be used as a texting, instant messaging, or phone call replacement to carry on personal conversations. What’s more, there is nothing worse than the person who Tweets every five minutes about things not even their mom would care about. I’ve encountered many Tweets like this that just end up clogging the Timeline and distracting from quality Tweets that people have put time and energy into planning and composing.
Additionally, people have learned that Tweeting the same thing multiple times will earn the content greater exposure. Obviously exposure is desired and a good thing, but, again, these constant Tweets aren’t adding anything new and distract from truly original Tweets.
3. User Saturation
As stated in the intro, 460,000 new accounts are created each day and there seems to be no sign of this slowing down. This generates a ton of blind followers. Honestly, there cannot be a reason to be following 5,000 people, let alone 500. Navigating the timeline in instances like these would be impossible. These seem to be half-hearted attempts to get reciprocal pity-follows, which are irrelevant and annoying. Perhaps what’s worse is many of the new accounts end up being bots designed to post links from RSS feeds. Not only does this spam the Timeline, but the purpose behind it is only to generate traffic to another site.
4. Increase in Inactivity
As of late, I’ve seen an increasing amount of Twitter accounts go inactive. What makes this a problem is that some of these accounts have very large amounts of followers. Circumstances like this leave followers wondering and wanting more. On a related note, when a friend’s account goes inactive, it creates an awkward situation: should you remain following or unfollow? It places the user in a somewhat difficult situation of perhaps offending a friend if they happen to be unfollowed.
Author: August Drilling, from Forte Promo, which sells promotional items, is a graduate from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities and social media enthusiast.
Image: Sonkurra