The Twitter (R)evolution

I know. I know. I get it. I really do. Twitter this. Tweet that. @someone. #something. Tweeps meeting for a tweetup outside the twittershpere 'round twelve o'clock. Twotally Twawesome Twisn't Twit?

It's the digital platform that never sleeps. It has spawned more offspring than the participants at a hillbilly family picnic. There are random Twitter applications taking up bandwidth all over the Web. Some are useful (see: TwitPic, TweetDeck) while others are not (see: TweetBrawl, TwitterLeague).

Twitter is a bona fide, smash hit of epic proportions not only in the social media world, but also in pop culture. It's everywhere you look. ESPN's SportsCenter features a tweet of the day. I can find all 360° of Anderson Cooper just by searching for @andersoncooper. I could even get a play-by-play of the King of Pop's star-filled memorial (if I was remotely interested in such a thing). Not only has the media latched onto the next BIG thing, but they've brought the rest of us along for the ride.

And who are we to complain?

We're absolutely smitten with it. Obsessed at first tweet. Kind of -- (according to HubSpot, 55% of people who have registered for a Twitter account have never tweeted; think of them as Twitter Voyeurs).

It's fun making up silly sounding words and names based on such a phonetically pleasing word as Twitter. We've established an entirely new social lexicon. Forget Googling something. That was so 2005. We're tweeting now. Get with the program.

I guess it's just as fun to learn something fresh and feel like you're at the forefront of an oncoming communications revolution as you join your friends in their mission to maintain conversations and stay current 140 characters or less at a time.

But now that the next BIG thing has been delivered to us on a multitude of silver platter platforms, where does it go from here? What do we do with it?

Every social network has something in common: it must evolve or die.

I don't believe Twitter can continue to exist and prosper in its current state. I think to a small degree it will continue to be used the way it is now with tweeters just telling their followers what they're "doing now." But the future for Twitter lies in the daily news headlines. You can already see the seeds being planted. People are using the service to break, find and discuss news in rapid succession. News outlets and reporters all over the country are using Twitter to get a leg up in the Great American Media Arms Race.

Twitter needs to evolve much the same way MySpace has evolved from a basic peer-to-peer social network to a digital music and video destination. Sure, there's still pieces of me and pieces of you scattered across that site in profile form, but do you think with the emergence of Facebook and other rising social stars, that MySpace would still be around if it hadn't evolved into what it has become today?

Bill Simmons, a columnist for ESPN.com, was interviewed by Mediaite.com recently and gave great insight into the Twitter phenomenon. "People are not seeing what is happening here. Facebook is a social network; Twitter is a media/marketing vehicle disguised as a social network."

The versatility and mobility of the micro-blogging service certainly makes it attractive to new and current users alike. But just as fast as the Twitter Revolution has arrived, the time will come for Twitter to make a choice that every other social network has had to make: evolve or die.

Something tells me the Tweeps will make that decision for them.

The Prodigal Son

It's true. I have returned from my six month sabbatical. I feel like a college professor just returning from an overseas stay in an underdeveloped country where I devoted my every waking hour to making the world a better place one smile at a time. Only, minus the sun tan, weight loss and the satisfaction of making the world a better place.

But that's why I'm back. I think I can make the world a better place (at least hypothetically) from my own desk listening to Pandora while I search the Interwebs for the latest digital playground toys.

So, sit back, relax and enjoy the ride as we float among the stars.

Welcome back.