Apocalypse now: Twitter and Apple
One week ago today, at 7:10am PDT, the world officially came to an end.
What? You didn’t notice? Maybe because the sun didn’t become black as sackcloth, nor did the whole moon become as blood. You see, despite T.S. Eliot’s warning, the world did not end with a bang. Or a whimper. It ended with a tweet. Specifically, the first tweet issued by a certain Ms. Oprah Winfrey. Later that day, Twitter’s Chief Executive, Evan Williams, and Twitter’s chief celebrity twit, Ashton Kutcher, joined Oprah on her show to discuss the relentlessly advancing Twitter phenomenon.
And what is so apocalyptic about the convergence of Oprah and Twitter? Well, if the proximity of those two words doesn’t already send a shudder down your spine, let us remind you of the Pied-Piper-like influence Oprah wields over a huge segment of America’s mainstream. An endorsement of Twitter by Oprah could well be the inflection point beyond which there is no return. It’s easy to imagine, with the O-stamp of approval, Twitter once and for all breaking out of its tech niche and forging onward to world domination.
Of course, if you’re a fan of Twitter, this may not sound so bad. But we’re in the midst of a Twitter backlash, fueled by the haters as well as the simply baffled (see our posts here and here). Even among devotees, though, and especially for the most intense Twitter acolytes, the Oprah affiliation signals an end of sorts. It’s like when your favorite indy band suddenly starts getting airplay and is written up in Rolling Stone. The thing is not exclusively yours, anymore. You’re no longer part of an elite. And so it’s no longer as cool.
Meanwhile, over in Cupertino, another new media milestone was reached, though without the four-horsemen overtones. Apple, which still boasts considerably more mainstream awareness than Twitter, has been selling applications for the iPhone through its App Store for about nine months now. Yesterday came a not-unexpected but still staggering announcement: the App store has reached one billion downloads. Not one million. One billion. One billion downloads onto the more than 37 million iPhones and iPod Touches Apple has sold.
And let’s not forget: regardless of the original and multiple uses intended for both Twitter and the iPhone, companies are using these technologies as new venues for marketing. With momentum and numbers like the above, it’s no wonder.
All of which is a reminder that the new media is more than websites and email blasts. It’s Twitter campaigns. It’s custom-designed iPhone apps. It’s social media blitzes (like our own experiment last week). And it’s much, much more. Want to leverage some of these innovations for your own brand? Then Big is the place to call.
hey! i posted this yesterday on my tumblr:
Twitter: Signs of the End-Times
So I have these google alerts set up that tell me whenever something has been posted on the internet with the words “apocalypse,” “apocalyptic,” “apocalypticism,” “end of the world” etc etc. Anyways, I have recently been getting 2-3 articles/posts a day that involve twitter. For example, “a sign of the looming apocalypse is that Ashton Kutcher is the king of Twitter” or “the end is coming soon because Barbara Walters has just joined twitter.” This interests me deeply: Why is Twitter, of all things, an apt indicator of our ever-impending doom? I can understand why almost every article invovling America’s financial meltdown is framed in apocalyptic terms (really, see for yourself how many articles on global finance in the mainstream media end with “end?”) but for some reason, twitter just doesn’t register as a proper medium for an apocalyptic narrative.
Perhaps if we follow the axiom “The medium is the message” then we gain better insight; people are apocalyptically reacting to twitter’s rise to prominence not simply because of its prominence but because of what Twitter symbolizes in-and-of-itself . I guess thats just what confuses me about all of this, what exactly does Twitter symbolize? Perhaps its the deterioration of human interaction to mere 140 charachter tweets? or Maybe its the fact that mainstream news outlets are reporting about twitter whilst they tweet about what they are reporting.
But for some reason i think it has much more to do with how twitter, when picked up and promoted by the nation’s media elite, becomes this artificial way of bringing the elite down to the level of the masses. Its like andy warhol once said: “What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too.” For instance, when Shaq responded to Oprah in aim-speak “ur caps r on, btw” it became viral because everyone felt like they also spoke in the same language, like “dood, I would say that if my friend tweeted in all caps.” And really, twitter is the first social-networking site that has been so prominently colonized by celebrities. They stayed away from myspace, facebook, etc, but now with twitter, the media elite are all whole-heartedly embracing it.
Why is this apocalyptic? Well thats what i cant figure out myself really, but perhaps its the fact that social-networking and blogs once symbolized this hope for the democratic spread of information throughout the internet. That such a medium “couldn’t not be” democratic by its very structure. Perhaps bringing the elite down to the level of the masses is a sign of democracy, but through Twitter? Really? Maybe thats why people think twitter is a sign of the end-times, because its absurdity matched with its mainstream hype can only be taken as another example of the media-elite dictating trends and co-opting movements. When people lose hope in things they once placed faith in, thats usually when they start thinking “the end has come.”
Great minds think alike mabye?
Comment by Brian Abelson — April 24, 2009 @ 2:38 pm
Brian, thanks for your comment — you mention some angles I hadn’t considered. Of course, there’s a much more basic explanation as to why so many Twitter posts and articles describe the service in apocalyptic terms: we’ve gotten in a habit, pop-culture-wise, of associating things we don’t like with the end of the world. Simple as that. It’s just an exaggerated way of saying the topic at hand is, in the author’s opinion, a really bad or annoying or frustrating or simple-minded phenomenon. And, given the Twitter backlash currently underway, I’m not at all surprised that your “end times” Google alerts are turning up Twitter references left and right.
Still, it’s interesting to consider the possibility that Twitter feels like Ragnarok to some people because, as you suggest, its current status represents the subversion of a democratizing impulse, the betrayal of a grass-roots movement. I’m sure some early adopters feel something akin to what you describe as a loss of hope in something they once placed faith in. And that surely is an apocalyptic feeling.
Again, thanks for your comment and your thoughts. A real pleasure to read.
Comment by Mike — April 30, 2009 @ 8:07 am
Twitter is like an abusive relationship. I keep not liking it. I don’t uses it. I have no intention of ever using it, yet it seems like I’m always talking about it. And usually in a negative way. But I do really like this guy’s opinion on the whole thing…. Joe the Peacock, http://www.joethepeacock.com/2009/03/ultimate-guide-to-twitter.php
Comment by puck — May 13, 2009 @ 1:38 pm