The Explosive Growth of Twitter

Upon the 8000th time hearing that phrase, I think it’s time to put that into perspective:

That’s still a lot of people, no doubt. But it’s still a baby learning to crawl when compared to facebook, or even myspace. Hell, it’s not even as popular as friendster, which is apparently only still used by a few people in the Phillipines.

But wait, you say – Twitter has 14 million members! Well then why is daily traffic only about a million? Well, for a start: 1) lots of those “members” aren’t real people, and 2) the proliferation of bots, spam, fake “marketing” tweets and just plain boring “what I had for lunch” updates are driving away real people in droves.

Am I going to predict Twitter’s death? No, not just yet. It’s too early in the disease cycle. But this is one very sick baby. And ugly, too.

Facebook Makes You Stupid, Twitter Makes You Dead Inside

…or so say researchers, according to this article from The Register:

Fresh research from America confirms that online social networks are in fact playthings of the devil. Ohio profs say that use of Facebook leads to lower college grades, and others in California have found that Twitter gradually renders its users’ moral compasses untrustworthy.

First up comes Aryn Karpinski of Ohio State Uni, with the news that Facebook users (at least those in her survey) are lazy, self-deluding thickies.

“There’s a disconnect between students’ claim that Facebook use doesn’t impact their studies, and our finding showing they had lower grades and spent less time studying,” says Karpinski.

The PhD candidate collaborated with Adam Duberstein of Ohio Dominican Uni, surveying 219 students at Ohio State. These included 102 undergraduate students and 117 graduate students. Of the participants, 148 said they had a Facebook account. Some 85 percent of undergraduates were Facebook users, while only 52 percent of graduate students had accounts.

The Facebook users had grade point averages (GPAs) between 3.0 and 3.5 (in other words getting more Bs than As), while non-users averaged between 3.5 and 4.0 (more As than Bs)*.

Also, “students who spent more time working at paid jobs were less likely to use Facebook,” according to Ohio State.

“There may be other factors involved, such as personality traits, that link Facebook use and lower grades,” adds Karpinski, who doesn’t have a Facebook account herself.

“It may be that if it wasn’t for Facebook, some students would still find other ways to avoid studying, and would still get lower grades. But perhaps the lower GPAs could actually be because students are spending too much time socializing online.”

Meanwhile, neuroscientists at the University of Southern California (USC) have suggested that too much use “rapid-fire media” – specifically, Twitter – “may confuse your moral compass”.

“Lasting compassion in relationship to psychological suffering requires a level of persistent, emotional attention,” says Manuel Castells, holder of the Wallis Annenberg Chair of Communication Technology and Society at USC.

It seems that USC neuro-boffins hooked people up to brain monitoring gear and measured their responses to stories told in different ways about different subjects.

According to the USC statement:

The study raises questions about the emotional cost — particularly for the developing brain — of heavy reliance on a rapid stream of news snippets obtained through television, online feeds or social networks such as Twitter.

“If things are happening too fast, you may not ever fully experience emotions about other people’s psychological states and that would have implications for your morality,” says Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, prof at USC’s Brain and Creativity Institute.

The USC researchers seem to suggest that learning things mainly through a constant stream of short, depersonalised info-nuggs will restrict a person’s ability to empathise with the people in the stories being told – to admire them, feel their pain or whatever.

Essentially, over-heavy Twitter use will make you cold, cynical and facile – ultimately leaving you heartless and dead inside.

“Indifference to the vision of human suffering gradually sets in,” says Castells.

There’s more from Ohio on Facebook making you thick/appealing primarily to lazy thickies here, and from California on Twitter making you dead inside/appealing primarily to the facile and amoral here.

150 Visitors a Day in 2 Weeks: the Bootstrap Method

Today is this blog’s 14th day in existence. Despite a couple of traffic-killing holidays in that period, I’m happy to report that, thanks to you, we’re now averaging 150 160 unique visitors a day, and the trend is upward. Since I’m just bootstrapping my way up, I thought I’d share what I did, what I didn’t, and what I didn’t do but should have.

What I did:

Concentrate on content. I’m writing about things that interest me, and hopefully others, not just trying to fill space. If you want to write just to get popular and make money…well, good luck. If you want to be John Chow, go for it.

Post consistently. I’m trying to stick to 5 days a day, Monday through Friday. That may become impossible, but I’ll try.

Utilize every free service available. Google Analytics is pretty much mandatory (though it could use an averaging function). Submitting to Digg, Technorati, StumbleUpon – all free. StumbleUpon has given me half of my traffic the last few days.

Establish communication with like-minded bloggers. Social Change SEO is one I like a lot, as well as a few friends I’ve added to my links. I’m finding more all the time. Keep in mind, this is not a business transaction. I’d love a PR8 or PR9 linkback, but only from a site that makes sense, and certainly not by paying some scammer. 

Write link-bait. I backed into this technique when I wrote about my hatred for Twitter in my second post. I’ll be honest: at the time I was totally naive that people wrote controversial posts strictly to gain traffic. But when I saw people streaming in, I wrote a follow-up on more reasons Twitter sucks. Hey, I ain’t stupid.

Link to high-traffic blogs, when relevant. For example, the first line in my 2009 predictions post. Maybe I overdid it a little, but all of those sites received a ping that I linked to them, and some had an auto-trackback posted in their comments, which could lead a few people here. But remember, treat it like an nude scene: only do it if it’s integral to the plot.

Comment on related posts elsewhere. Let others know that you’ve posted your take on a subject, but again, only if you can add something to the conversation. Don’t be a salesperson. Apply the normal rules of human engagement.

Mention this blog on my social networks. Again, avoid salesmanship if you don’t want to be treated like one. These sites are there to let people know what you’re doing, and your blog is one of the things you’re doing.

Tweak the meta-tags. At the very least, make sure you have an accurate description. This is something I slacked on until just yesterday.

What I didn’t do:

Spam other blogs with unrelated comments.

Participate in in dicey linking schemes.

Write anything I couldn’t live with.

Connect with anyone I wouldn’t have in real life.

What I didn’t do but should have:

Ask for links. ”You don’t ask, you don’t get”. I need to get better at this. I really prefer things happen organically, but I also hate waiting. Slight conflict there.

Write a bunch of posts before launching, in order to “find my voice” first. I guess there’s nothing wrong with growing up in public, but this blog has just started to find itself in the last few days. It also would make regular posting easier if I had an archive I could pull one out of when I needed to.

Make it pay for itself. Just yesterday I reluctantly placed an ad in the sidebar, which I can’t even see myself due to ad-blocking software. Hopefully you can. I can’t ask you to click on it, as that’s against Google’s policy. But I think I can mention that I make money if you do.

Clearly, I’m still struggling with how/whether I want to make money on this. If just one of you signs up with my web host, I’ll break even. I recommend it, isn’t that good enough?

No? OK then, scroll down on the sign-up page and enter coupon code “GOTAPEX-ROX-A-LOT” for 3 months free, free domain registration, and only $6.95 a month. What else do you want?

What did I say about avoiding salesmanship?