Sunday, October 18, 2009

Is Twitter done? Miley Cyrus might be right

Maybe Miley Cyrus is on to something.
The 16-year-old singer and “Hannah Montana” star quit Twitter earlier this month. She posted a video called “Good-bye Twitter” on YouTube in which she raps about her decision on Oct. 9.
Why did she quit?
“The reasons are simple. I started tweetin’ ‘bout pimples. I stopped livin’ for moments and started livin’ for people,” she rapped. Cyrus added, “The truth is I’m too busy.”
She rapped that gossip sites were turning her tweets about doing her hair and who she was hanging out with into news. Cyrus had attracted about 2 million followers to her tweets.
Cyrus cited some of the same complaints about Twitter that regular people do. Specifically, Twitter is about people writing trivial things; it’s a waste of time; and it also can be addicting.
Maybe the general public is feeling the same way as Cyrus.
I’ve thought about quitting several times since signing on in April. But I'm a casual user who mostly just posts links on Twitter.
Statistics from comScore and Hitwise show that Twitter has been losing its momentum. The above chart from the Tribune Newspapers shows the number of visitors to Twitter wilting, while visitors to the much larger Facebook continue to climb.
Mashable writes “Has Twitter’s Growth Peaked?”
It certainly looks like the bloom is off the rose for Twitter.

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