Item — HN Reader

When I first heard of it, I didn't get it. Then I got it and thought -- that's really cool. Then I ungot it. Twitter is a mullet. It's not just a fad, but a fad that will embarrass us later.

Listen, I'm all for technology. And new things really require a shift in our mindset. I love the "global realtime-ness" of Twitter, and I'm sure that core product will still be around in five years. What form it will be in is hard to say, but I can guarantee you it will not be as Twitter, which will have become a zeitgeist-icon-of-infamy for this age in the same way Pets.com and Boo are for the dot com bubble.

3 comments

"Twitter is a mullet". Just checked on google and that is the first use of that phrase on the internet. I'm proud to have been here to see because that is going to stick.

For what it's worth, I agree. Survey's show only 40% of new users returning after a month. But Facebook was more like that, and it's not dead yet. There's the Stephen Fry | Sockington style Twitter mediated humour, and that's fine but it's not enough to make me put up with the inane "I'm drinking coffee now! OMG!" drivel from so many people I vaguely know. Question is, what proportion of people enjoy that? I suspect that if I worked in a cubicle my need for displacement activity would make me an avid twitter user.

Five years isn't that long; Twitter has already been around for three. I seriously doubt it'll be gone in another five.