Why Does the Media Insist Twitter is a ‘Revolution’ When it Clearly Isn’t?

Right now, Twitter is playing a major role in Iran’s revolution. It’s given the protesters a way to expose all of the lies the government has been shoving down their throats. So much breath-taking footage has leaked its way of Iran, and into our hands. It’s been amazing to watch just how media covers all of this. It seems like they can’t go a single minute without having to mention their Twitter sites. According to them, Twitter is this ‘amazing technology of the future that’s going to change everything!’ The only thing Twitter has been able to accomplish is getting old farts to finally start using the Internet, instead of brushing off social sites like they’re some child’s toy.

Twitter is nothing more than a fad. Before you know it, the next big “social networking revolution” will launch and everyone will migrate to that one instead. Five years ago MySpace was the big thing. Everyone had a MySpace account, and spent every waking moment on that site, leaving comments on other people’s profiles and uploading pictures of themselves to show off. If you wanted to be found on the Internet, you had a MySpace. Nothing was going replace MySpace, right?

Then FaceBook came along, and everyone said the same thing about that site. Now we’re at the age of the Twitter. Twitter isn’t popular simply because it exists. Twitter is popular for the same reason FaceBook is popular, and for the same reason MySpace was popular. It’s because people are on it contributing their own content. Twitter wouldn’t be interesting if nobody said anything. Before you know it, people will start to get tired of Twitter, because of a limited the tools are, and how unreliable the service is. Eventually another social site will launch and will offer all the tools people want that aren’t part of Twitter.

Twitter makes it easy to follow people, and discover new people and ideas. But that’s about it. Any pictures, movies, stories, blogs, or music you want to share happens outside of Twitter. The revolution in Iran didn’t start because of Twitter. We just found out about it because of Twitter.

Besides, discovering and connecting people around the world didn’t start because of Twitter, it started with the birth of the Internet and the personal computer.