Has Twitter Had Its Day?

Recently I read this Techcrunch article discussing the C-level casting changes at Twitter, and the company's recent efforts toward attracting new users, and found myself shaking my head the entire time.

I fall into the category of "I've never used Twitter". In March of 2006, when Twitter became a thing, I was a regular user of Livejournal and Deviantart. Facebook still hadn't managed to convince me that fandom would be a more enriching experience on their site over Livejournal's, and the change of ownership at Livejournal that occurred later in the year was not enough to scare me off. I watched, over time, as Livejournal peaked and declined due to user migration to Facebook and Twitter, and then waited for a compelling reason to follow.

I never got one.

In the meantime, Tumblr became a thing. I joined the site because Tumblr caters to human attention deficit in a different way. Or maybe it doesn't. Maybe it's just the way Tumblr postures itself that convinced me. Regardless, joining the site wasn't a zero-sum decision. I felt no need to leave Livejournal and Deviantart for good to hang out on Tumblr. The site managed to integrate itself into the social media landscape in a much more congenial way than Twitter. And how many times have I read a negative article about Tumblr since its inception?

Twitter's reputation, on the other hand, has consistently been controversial. Most of what I read in the media about it involves some user putting a reckless tweet into his or her proverbial mouth and getting slammed for it — either by the media, an employer, the torch-and-pitchfork-wielding Twitterati, or all of the above.

At one point, and in terms of popularity, Twitter's greatest competitor was Facebook. Now Twitter has been left in Facebook's dust. I don't believe there's genuine hope of recovery. Twitter seems to have established itself as a cautionary tale, but with far fewer resources to deal with their tarnished reputation than their biggest competitor. Moreover, it seems that all the logical ideas for social media have been actualized, and that Facebook is the amalgam of them. What would Twitter do now to attract new users that isn't a reiteration of what Facebook has already achieved (and with less guerilla marketing behind it)?

Whether on browser, mobile web or mobile app, the social media standards are firmly defined at this point. And I think people have chosen where they would like to socialize on the Internet. So anyone who isn't already on Twitter isn't going to be.

For the record, I'm still active on Livejournal, Deviantart and Tumblr. I'm also active on Google+, another website I consider to be an amalgam of all the best ideas in social media. But that is a topic for another article.

It will be interesting to see how Jack Dorsey manages to turn around Twitter — if in fact he can. I'm not holding my breath.