As I talk about Twitter with people, there seem to be three camps:
1) The Twitter Addicted: These are people that swear that life as they know it would stop if Twitter went away. They follow everyone and actually read every Tweet. They may limit their follows to celebrities or market leaders or every one in their school, but they LOVE LOVE LOVE the never ending flow of information (even useless information) that flows from the Twittosphere.
2) Corporate America (who have embraced social) & Social Media Goons: These include people that are looking to turn Twitter into a way that actually drives revenue, brand awareness, or even personal on-line net worth. I guess it also includes the Twitter Spammers who send out 50 Tweets a day explaining how you can make $570/hour if you would just click their link. There are individuals here who are also Twitter Addicted – but again, the goal is to use the Twitter as a tool, more than a toy.
3) The Twitter Unitiated: These are people that think that Twitter is stupid and probably the biggest waste of time ever invented. Who could possibly be interested in hearing what Charlie Sheen is drunkenly babbling about, much less what your neighbor is saying when he walks into the local supermarket to buy a loaf of bread.
I am definitely a bleeding edge Technogeek. I love new technology and new ideas and am always trying to find ways to push the limits of what products were designed to do (e.g. jailbreaking my overworked iPhone/iPad, wiring my home with more servers and network cable than most small companies, etc.). My cousin often yells at me for installing too many apps on my computer and then grumbling about how unstable it has become. However, even though I created a Twitter account back in early 2008, I would have considered myself in that third camp until a few months ago.
I spent last weekend with a few different groups of people who definitely thought Twitter was stupid and I found myself in the interesting role of defending a concept that I have only semi-recently embraced. I thought it would be interesting to share why people are in the “Twitter Sucks” camp. We should keep these complaints in mind as we develop new applications, seek new content absorbers, and tweet with reckless abandon. I will spend a future post (“Twitter Does Not Suck, right?”) addressing why I have found Twitter to be useful both as a marketer as well as a marketing tool.
So, here’s my top ten list on why Twitter Is Stupid
- I don’t have enough time to read my e-mail and barely enough time to occasionally look at Facebook., I don’t have time to follow Twitter.
- It’s impossible to communicate anything of any value in 140 characters.
- Why should I tweet? Who cares what I have to say!?
- I looked at Twitter and there are people following 25,000 people – that just proves how ridiculous of a tool it is.
- The tweets I looked at seem to be nothing more than people pushing get rich quick links.
- Random ramblings of famous people is stupid enough – much less those of people I don’t care about.
- Twitter seems to be nothing more than a game to get as many followers as possible. What possible value is there if people are just blindly following whoever follows them?
- Twitter is filled with people automatically posting links from RSS feeds. I can just open a web site and get better info.
- There are 9000 other ways to get a message to someone (e-mail, voice, text, IM, fax, carrier pigeon), why should I bother with Twitter?
- And the #1 reason why Twitter is Stupid – Justin Bieber.
What do you think?
See this post for the counterpoint to this article:
Golden Nuggets 
Posted by Wesley Wise on May 6, 2011 at 3:32 am
Twitter is not only a source of entertainment for most people, but it is also one of the newest strategy for acquiring customers for businesses. I’d say NEW because a lot of people still don’t have twitter accounts, or even if they have one, they are not maximizing the benefits of it. Needless to say, Twitter is a fantastic tool in giving your company/business a voice and a personality.
Posted by Justin Bieber: A Social Media Case Study | Eric Goldstein's Golden Nuggets on June 13, 2011 at 4:24 pm
[…] in the target demo for Justin Bieber. I even listed Mr. Bieber (tongue in cheek) as one of my Top Ten Reasons Why Twitter is Stupid. When my wife asked me to rent his new movie Never Say Never, I decided to try and earn some […]
Posted by PrachiRai on October 21, 2011 at 10:04 am
i think you’re totally wrong..,, twitter is awesome!
Posted by Anonymous on October 21, 2011 at 10:16 am
Read my other post on why Twitter is awesome!
Posted by Sjshdgfy on January 17, 2012 at 1:33 am
Twitter is for self absorbed narcissistic people who think their life needs to be written so that other self absorbed people can agree or disagree with their horrible crap of a life they have. I would donate $5,000 to hungry kids in poor countries if Twitter would disappear or die off.
Posted by Anonymous on January 17, 2012 at 8:16 am
Like many other tools out there, Twitter can be used in productive, non-productive, and completely wasteful ways.
The nature of Twittter does drive a certain type of behavior that can be considered self absorbed, but look at the way our country follows celebrities, etc. etc. We CRAVE information – and immediate information.
Even watching the GOP debate yesterday, watching how they used Twitter to gather real time information on whether thought the people were dodging or answering the questions. It’s a way for companies to get real time info and opinions from customers, prospects, etc..
It’s just something that’s got to be taken with a grain of salt. It’s not for everyone.
Posted by Anonymous on October 21, 2011 at 10:20 am
And after seeing you’ve got 86K followers, you’re obviously in the Twitter Addicted crowd…
Posted by Sbrawley57 on December 27, 2011 at 10:53 pm
Twitter is for people who don’t have a life of their own. Open a door or window. Go outside. Breathe. Think your own thoughts. Create. Contribute. LIVE.
Posted by Eaglenation5 on January 21, 2012 at 10:46 am
They should call it shitter
Posted by BluuFlash on April 12, 2014 at 2:53 am
Shitter Bird
Posted by Vin Sim on October 7, 2014 at 4:47 pm
Shit Birds.
Posted by GoodJob on February 5, 2012 at 5:30 pm
“10. And the #1 reason why Twitter is Stupid — Justin Bieber.”
THIS.
Posted by who the F on February 25, 2012 at 12:50 pm
Who gives a crap to what you do every 5 effing seconds?
Posted by Anonymous on February 25, 2012 at 1:01 pm
While there are many using Twitter to post random uselessness, there are a good number of people who use twitter to share useful tidbits, articles, blog posts, etc. It can also be used for contests, etc..
In the end, it’s less about the medium than the content.
Posted by Tricky1_380 on April 11, 2012 at 1:29 pm
How much useful/meaningful content can you put in 140 odd characters? It seems like the character limit would discourage any nuanced, and meaningful discourse by it’s very structure, no?
Isn’t part of the problem with American culture, in particular, too much “bumper sticker philosophy” and not enough critical thinking, and introspection?
I think Orwell had a valid point with the concept of “Newspeak.”
Dumb down the syntax, the structure by putting limits on it, and you effect the ability of individuals to adequately express themselves, or even to reason well.
Posted by Nomail on March 1, 2012 at 9:31 am
100% agree no point
why would i tell someone what i do in my life and why do they care to read
I tried to force my self to use it as i’m in marketing and bearly find value in facebook – advertising and nothing more. myspace out in toilet, whats up next?
Posted by Postal on March 1, 2012 at 9:34 am
WHERE ARE THE MONEY AND THE VALUE PROPOSITION
I think twitter totally gay oriented, really. Pedicure and twittering
Posted by Violetgreen on March 4, 2012 at 12:03 pm
Past tense of Tweet is Twit . . .
Posted by GaemBrain on March 18, 2012 at 10:05 pm
carrier pigeon LMFAO
Posted by Yeahright on April 4, 2012 at 3:37 pm
This article was terrible….and the lame Justin Bieber joke at the end, just makes it that much worse…..
Posted by Anonymous on April 4, 2012 at 3:43 pm
I appreciate the feedback.. 🙂 I’d assume you’re in the Twitter addicted group.
Posted by nunyabusiness on July 4, 2012 at 10:59 pm
justin beiber’s music is torture to listen to. you’re lame if you actually think he’s good.
Posted by Tricky1_380 on April 11, 2012 at 12:31 pm
It’s superfluous and unnecessary. It’s like when plastic was first invented, people did all sorts of “wacky” and silly things with it, like make hula-hoops. Some people thought hula-hoops were evil (caused kids to gyrate in “sexual” ways) others thought that it would usher in a new wave of fitness, still others saw it for what it was, a plastic ring. A passing fancy. Trivial.
What’s with all these claims that it’s a great business tool? Is it? Prove it. Where’s the peer reviewed data that shows that Twitter is great at bringing in new customers. If there is no data then it’s just another baseless claim. Let’s not forget social media, whatever that means; beyond a marketing term, was around prior to the Great Recession, and while it’s true that correlation does not equal causation social media has, in all likelihood, done little, to nothing with driving up sales, and helping the economy.
Posted by Tricky1_380 on April 11, 2012 at 12:49 pm
It would appear that social media has little value with regard to driving up sales, at least according to the Pew Center: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1821/twitter-users-profile-exclusive-examination and is more about narcissism (a potentially dangerouse disorder, hate to go here, but Hitler was narcissistic), and less about usefull information. The study is very interesting, and their methodology appears sound. I’m looking forward to seeing if replicated studies find the same results.
Posted by guest on May 25, 2012 at 6:31 am
some good points. but still, is twitter important for internet marketing despite the fact that its so stupid? I do feel stupid to set up hootsuite to auto tweet rss feeds. its a bunch of spam and people wasting time with a toy
Posted by Anonops05 on June 15, 2012 at 11:39 am
I agree, i made one was boring to me and a waste of time its useless really i dont know what others find so great in it, nice to see a fellow twitter disliker
Posted by Jacob on June 21, 2012 at 1:38 pm
1. I don’t have enough time to read Shakespeare every day, does that make Shakespeare stupid? Because you’re too absorbed into your blog does not mean that everything you do not have time for is stupid.
2. This claim is outrageous, of course you can. “Be as you wish to seem.” -Socrates in 116 characters, seems pretty meaningful to me.
3. Why should you blog? No one cares what you have to say! (In all seriousness a lot of breaking news and other useful information is shared on twitter. It’s a fast and efficient way to get word out to millions of people.)
4. I’m not really sure what you’re trying to prove with this point. Of course people will over do it, that applies to everything.
5. Then you’re following some shitty people. Your fault, not twitter’s
6. If you don’t care about what people have to say, don’t follow them on twitter! Simple.
7. There is no value to 99% of the internet (including this article). Twitter provides a place for people to quickly and easily share a thought, idea or a link for their friends to view. It’s basic social networking.
8. Again this comes down to who you chose to follow
9. Because the majority of the time you’re not trying to reach a single person. People are obsessed with famous people and they’re truly interested in their lives. Some famous dude can’t send a god damn carrier pigeon to 20 million people, nor a text or a fax! Facebook is also a good tool for this as well.
10. I concur.
So basically don’t follow annoying people and your twitter experience will definitely improve. I’m not saying that twitter is for everyone, but it definitely is a valuable tool for finding more information about companies, friends and family, protesters, sports teams, new movies, video games and other media, job searches news, quotes, and improved customer support.
For as much complaining you did in this article, it would seem that you didn’t put much thought into this list.
And for the record there are definitely more than 3 ‘camps’
Posted by Anonymous on June 21, 2012 at 5:07 pm
Jacob —
BTW – if you noticed, I wrote a follow-up to this explaining why Twitter is “great”.
I personally am still lukewarm on Twitter as a whole. While there is good information there, it’s a LOT of noise to get to the nuggets. I build a few targeted lists and try and watch them – but it’s easily overwhelming (particularly with the other social media along with trying to have a life).
Don’t take it so seriously – I was saying much of this tongue in cheek.
Posted by Amir Mehdi on May 16, 2015 at 8:35 pm
Your vote count explains a lot…
Posted by Royal Chapman on June 23, 2012 at 10:21 pm
The proof of the uselessness of social media is the number of people who post their picture and it’s them taking their own picture. You mean to tell me you don’t have one friend who can take your picture for you to post? Social media, right.
Posted by blahblah on June 28, 2012 at 7:26 am
twitter is the dumbest sh#$ i have ever seen in my life. nobody cares that your drinking a chai tea right now.
#LAME
Posted by Mehdi on October 29, 2014 at 10:20 pm
ironically chai in many languages including persian, hindi and russian means tea. what are they drinking? “Tea tea”?
Posted by Amir Mehdi Delta on May 16, 2015 at 8:25 pm
True that XD
Posted by MikeHunt on July 11, 2012 at 10:31 pm
I might actually tweet this….
Posted by Dbroz2 on July 22, 2012 at 3:57 pm
read @iowahawk, not famous, but smart & funny as Hell; you just need to be more discriminating on what you read. ‘Just Say No’ to celebs
Posted by Anonymous on July 25, 2012 at 12:52 am
“It’s impossible to communicate anything of any value in 140 characters.”
BINGO!!!
Posted by JakeJakes on July 25, 2012 at 9:02 pm
you listed a few of the reasons why, but here’s some others.
The UI: Its a complete jumbled messed seemingly designed for users that have some form of A.D.D.(just trying to find who posted what is a nightmare). it’s very non-intuitive and gives me a headache just looking at it.
What’s the point?: communication? what could you possible communicate that has any level of importance in 140 character. “Going to take a dump, note to self, toilet paper is > hand”. the only point I see in it is to help fuel your narcissism. if not that, then the opposite, help you stalk.
customization: the site offers little to no kind of customization and seems to be nothing but a working experiment in “what stupid shit can a human being embarrass their self with within 140 characters or less”, that or “Grow your penis by 2 inches, in 140 minutes or less” ads(Would be pretty easy to setup a bot to post those kinda messages, I might be an easy buck)
100% pure fad:I give it another year, then people will jump ship and go to over to the new “Twitter”, it’s probably boast something like “now with 80 character limit and 5 second video blogs!!!!!”. Micro-Micro blogging at it’s finest.
Privacy(Biggest Reason):non-existent, now your stupidity will follow you every where you go. All your future employers will probably check your twitter/facebook/ect before they interview you. 🙂 good luck with that.
This is just how I feel about any social media site really, but twitter is by far the worst and most pointless crap I’ve seen yet.. I guess I lack
the narcissism,A.D.D,erotomania and stupidity to really jump on the bandwagon for this one. I really tried to see the usefulness of it..but from a non-commercial/non-advertising point of view…it has none.
I have dubed twitter a new name “Twatterous”, 🙂 have you twatted today?
Posted by Queitdisplacement on August 2, 2012 at 5:44 am
I semi agree with you. I hope to convince you to setup a 4th group:- people who go to Twitter as a source of entertainment when bored, e.g., commuting, need to sleep but cannot. I also post tweets from Path. Most of my communication is intended for small audience of friends; a means to stay ‘connected’.
I despise the people who spend endless hours on endeavors like developing a following in the name of ‘personal branding’. I probably miss a lot of useful information in tweets since I only spend 5 minutes before bed checking, but if I am in need of information, there are still search engines around that are working pretty well.
What I find most ridiculous are people who retweet the messages of someone else as a means to get into their good books. This c#*@ sucking behavior is disgusting.
Posted by Tweet tweet tweet. | No, THIS is how you do it… on August 3, 2012 at 12:46 pm
[…] things to be rabid about…) and offer all sorts of reasons for why Twitter is stupid, like this. I appreciated his article though, because it basically is like a checklist for me to approve […]
Posted by Nicole Heathcliff on September 18, 2012 at 3:36 am
I’m too long-winded to make any real use of Twitter, and I don’t have any advertising needs. I agree with you that the medium itself has useful potential even though the site is flooded with idiots. In good conscience, I can’t let myself babble on about my boring life to people who don’t give a s!@#. Why must people narrate their lives through social media?
Posted by saint seiya on September 18, 2012 at 10:45 pm
yes, even Twitter’s name sounds so stupid. I hate when hearing people say ‘ let me twi this now’ WTF is ‘twi’… People think it sounds like a bird? I think it just sounds like an idiot.
Posted by EricSGoldstein on September 26, 2012 at 12:27 pm
Twitter / Tweeting – I think it’s a good brand name to describe what it is.. Hits both the positive and negative aspects of it..
Posted by Slenderbrunette on October 17, 2012 at 2:28 am
While I agree with most of the article, I disagree with #2.
A good writer CAN communicate effectively in under 140 characters. In fact, I just shared this article AND my opinion within that limit. You’re welcome. 😉
The communication skill I most admire is being simultaneously brief and effective.
What sucks about twitter is composing an brief and articulate tweet…only for it to get lost in the stupidity and have no one acknowledge it.
Posted by Aruna Advaney on October 17, 2012 at 2:31 am
While I agree with most of the article, I disagree with #2.A good writer CAN communicate effectively in under 140 characters. In fact, I just shared this article AND my opinion within that limit. You’re welcome. ;)The communication skill I most admire is being simultaneously brief and effective.What sucks about twitter is composing an brief and articulate tweet…only for it to get lost in the stupidity and have no one acknowledge it.
Posted by outsider on June 1, 2014 at 11:52 am
ugly dirty look
Posted by 2icekuctpork on November 18, 2012 at 2:30 pm
I think you’ve merely become one more contemporary information junkie.
Posted by Eric on November 18, 2012 at 3:49 pm
Tis possible.
Posted by Puccanu on December 5, 2012 at 5:53 pm
Well nobody tweets everything they do. That’s a facebook user thought. Facebook is worse, it’s filled with tons of “Like for pizza, ignore for hell. And with Twitter if you are being bothered by annoying’s and celebs, it’s just a quick unfollow. Basically if you follow irrelevant people, you’ll get irrelevant tweets.
Posted by lifegoeson on December 7, 2012 at 1:00 pm
twitter is all about following those crazy people who dont even know us. It’s like follow & gain. what the hell? why dont u follow and gain in your real life??
Posted by Chikatjayana on December 17, 2012 at 12:54 pm
Twitter Should be called Stupido because it’s following facebook
Posted by Paul on December 31, 2012 at 1:53 pm
Twitter is more boring than church.
Posted by EricSGoldstein on January 26, 2013 at 11:55 am
Not sure if I’d go that far….
Posted by Shiningpath on January 16, 2013 at 3:49 am
I have never used or read anything on twitter and have yet to find any reason to do so.
Posted by Samantha on January 29, 2013 at 6:17 am
I fuckin hate your Justine Beiber!
Posted by John Garratt on March 7, 2013 at 10:50 am
Wow.
Posted by Name on March 25, 2013 at 12:58 am
Soooooo, y’all probably have twitter now, right?
Posted by Cynic on April 25, 2013 at 2:40 am
Why waste time reading all the stupid bullshit that people post on it. My generation feels like wiping their ass without getting it on their hand is an achievement that’s worth tweeting.
Posted by EricSGoldstein on April 25, 2013 at 11:19 am
I hear you.. Life continually is getting broken down from conversations to letters to e-mail to voice mail to text messages to Tweets. Our attention span is brief (as the noise is very high)..
Twitter is a LOT of noise and this article was very tongue in cheek. But there’s actually good value coming from Twitter beyond people posting the type of cheese they put on their hamburger..
Posted by QuentonQuale on July 11, 2013 at 8:20 am
I dislike Twitter(a more insipid name could not be found) AND Facebook. All designed to track your every move and sell the information to other businesses. The young and mindless embrace it with abandon.
Posted by Steve Beckle on September 9, 2013 at 12:33 pm
Now if Justin Bieber’s music could be limited to 140 microseconds, we as a society would be making progress.
Posted by twat on October 24, 2013 at 11:58 pm
twitter is for twits
Posted by Jazzy E on February 9, 2014 at 1:42 pm
…and twats
Posted by it's all the same on December 14, 2013 at 6:39 pm
anything you post on twitter/instagram/pintrest, et al you could just post to your facebook page and change the settings to public. The content is exactly the same. Why make facebook private then and all those other platforms public? what the hell is the difference. why do people need five + different accounts and devices that all do the same thing? iphone, smartphone, ipad, ipod, imac et al. People are so stupid.
Posted by YOU are stupider than Twitter. on January 11, 2014 at 11:18 pm
You sound like a Christian. WTF does a Jew sound like?
You have a big problem coming up with that you moron.
You are stupider than Twitter.
Posted by goldfarb on September 12, 2014 at 11:17 pm
anyone who complains about anything is likely to be a jew
Posted by steven noyb on January 19, 2014 at 5:14 pm
Shitter sucks ass
Posted by Stephen on January 23, 2014 at 1:24 pm
Twitter I think is dumb. Hash tag this, hash tag that, so stupid. If Twitter and Instagram never came around, life would be better. I stick to Facebook.
Posted by KidStressedWithFingMath on March 13, 2014 at 6:30 pm
I don’t use twitter or Facebook or whatever. But what’s the point of writing this? I mean this is just stupid. I don’t know about the random people of the world but I certainly don’t care what you think.
Posted by MR on March 17, 2014 at 5:58 am
twitter is just plain stupid and for the uneducated. It’s redundant, waste of time and for people who don’t have a life. The worst FAD in history and as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike
Posted by th C on April 22, 2014 at 4:23 pm
its a voyeuristic disease
but I get instant traffic and weather warnings and stuff like that, otherwise, as a social thing its useless and poached by commercialism, click baiters..
Posted by sex on July 28, 2014 at 11:58 pm
sex
Top Ten Reasons Why Twitter is Stupid and Why You Should Care | Eric Goldstein’s Golden Nuggets
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Top Ten Reasons Why Twitter is Stupid and Why You Should Care | Eric Goldstein’s Golden Nuggets
Posted by Vin Sim on October 7, 2014 at 4:48 pm
Buy all 3 call it YouTwitFace.com
Posted by Mike on October 10, 2014 at 1:20 pm
Why is it called twitter? I keep thinking it has something to do with pedophilia because it reminds me so much of the word. Diddle. “I’m gonna go home and twitter my children”
Posted by Antony Wingate on March 19, 2015 at 7:44 pm
The fact you can only write short messages is really stupid. Its prohibits prolific authors. Thoughtful posts. And intellectualism.
Posted by pinky on April 18, 2015 at 4:16 pm
no facebook is the worst
Posted by Blair Broderick on April 25, 2015 at 6:08 pm
if you can only post 140 characters then you shouldn’t be able to post an image with more than 140 pixels too.