Twitter is overhyped. It’s overcooked, the BBC is reporting on a Harvard document that says the average Twitter member tweets only once, it’s all about broadcasting and not a massive conversation.

I’m not so sure.

I’m not disputing Harvard’s findings for a moment. If Harvard says only ten per cent of people really stretch the system and a whole lot of people just turn up and have a look out of curiosity and go away again, I’m sure that’s right.

Then again, I wonder how many unattended websites are out there, which never update themselves and which don’t add anything new - ever. My guess is ‘plenty’. You can add to that ‘how many people really used their mobile phones during the first three years in which the technology was available’ - oh, and email during the first couple of years. It’s all part of the same thing. New technology attracts the curious as well as the serious.

My best guess is that the report is factually accurate, which is its sole aim - but the conclusions at which it hints are wrong. Twitter is a new thing and has yet to find its niche; this isn’t some sort of sign of failure or stalling. Give it, and other social media, another five years or so and then we’ll see where it’s bedding down permanently.

Tags: twitter, social media, social network