Getting overwhelmed with SMS or IMs from your
Twitter list? Annoyed by random friend requests? Tried Twitter at
SxSW and now you think it's about to
Jump the Shark already?
Ease back on the throttle there, Fonzie. Twitter is no different than MySpace or Flickr or Blogger except in its immediacy and constant freshness, which accelerates everything. Every social web app goes through the same cycle of use/abuse/acceptance. You just have to master it, and not let it master you.
As I've experienced them over the last
year, here are
The 12 Stages of Twitter:
1. Curiosity
2. Interest
3. Novelty
4. Excitement
5. Inviting everyone you know
6. Optional: Inviting the wrong person (skip to 9)
7. Massive use / Addiction
8. Slight abuse / accidental use
9. Annoyance / Frustration
10. Cutting way back
11. "Going dark" (or going "private")
12. Acceptance (back to 1)
This morning, my best friend from high school
announced the birth of his baby boy on Twitter. You can't tell me that Twitter is dying when there are moments like these to be shared. Quickly!
My advice to you: skip to Step 10. Try
Jaiku for a while, if you absolutely must post from your phone. Get
Twitteriffic or
Twidget or the
forthcoming Twitter Apollo app in order to deal with the deluge.
But remember one thing: folks younger than you don't mind the interruptions, the constant Tweets. They adapt. They turn off their phone's text alerts. They cull their friend list. They write some code to help filter their information.
Twitter does not jump sharks. People use Twitter to jump sharks. The Death of Twitter is a Myth, people.
You ain't seen nothing yet.
Dad got a new iMac last night, his first Apple product (besides the Shuffle) since his Apple IIe. Here are the highlights: 
