Twitterfails and Metatextual Chatter

I'm not known as Twitter's biggest fan. I've griped extensively, on many occasions and in many forums, on the problems with Twitter. Just so I won't have to get into that again, I feel it's biggest problem is not technical, it's the fact that it's users are thrilled to death that they are using it and at the same time, by and large they have no clue what they're doing on it.

Having said that, yesterday's debacle regarding @replies was something of an embarrassment to the service, but it backed up my point perfectly. While Twitter was having backend issues, they tried to cover it up by suggesting the @replies were too complicated and causing confusion. Let's examine that claim for a moment: it goes without saying that the Twitter brass made a colossally bad decision in lying during a press release, but it's something of a testament to the utter ignorance of it's users. Techmeme and other aggregators began collecting dozens of editorials suggesting that the move was condescending. I'm hoping the irony of this is not lost on you: The tech press and public was effectively fooled by Twitter's early claims, yet outraged that they were being treated like idiots. Hey, stupids: you wouldn't know the truth if it bit you on the ass, which it happened to do later that day. If Twitter failed, then so did all the ignorant wags.

When you examine the content on Twitter, much of it is still some form of Twittershock: A lot of posts are simply enthusiasm for Twitter, or complaints about it, or boasts about the amount of followers the user has, or proclamations that it is the greatest thing ever, or pronouncements that Twitter is dead, or some combination thereof. When I think about all the press from yesterday, it is clear to me that not only does the public not understand fully what Twitter is, but they have no idea how to make it work for them in any sort of practical way. This leads to a great deal of chatter about Twitter on Twitter.

Was the tool built as giant exercise in metatext? Definitely not, but the more it veers in that direction, the more it pulls toward it's own demise. As the savvy 5% become inundated by the volume of pointless metatextual chatter from the other 95%, they find themselves in an increasingly insular community that is ill-equipped to educate the masses. For the masses, it is a flavor of the month, a drill in keeping up with the Jonses that will ultimately be left by the wayside when the next new fad comes along. In the meantime, it's practical potential is slowly choked by the way it is actually being used. So am I predicting it's death? Not by a longshot. However, before it sees its true potential realized, I feel sure that it is destined to be rejected by the public when the giddiness of exclaiming "look ma, I'm on Twitter!" wears off.