One of the things I’ve noticed since joining Twitter is that my instant messaging has gone WAY DOWN!
Does this spell the death of the instant messaging services? Or has Twitter BECOME the new IM?
Prior to using Twitter throughout the day (Via tweetdeck), I would have several conversations going in either my AIM client or my iChat at home. Now, it seems like I rarely have a chat going at all. Most everyone from my buddy list is now on Twitter. If I want to know what’s going on with them, I just check their time line and vice versa. I also get a lot of direct messages and replies via Twitter, so direct questions or comments come from there instead of my chat client.
Does that mean Twitter is the new instant messaging platform?
I think AIM believes it could be so. I noticed when I upgraded to their AIM client 6.9 just last week (I use iChat at home, but AIM at work), that they were pushing the fact that you can keep up with your friends from other social networks including Facebook and Twitter. It’s possible that they’ve had that support for a while, but it was the first I’d seen of it and it got me to thinking.
As easily as I, a heavy instant messaging user, found myself rarely if ever using the damned thing anymore – how many other people are doing the same? Are AIM and MSN and Yahoo and all the other chat clients suddenly seeing massive drops in usership as people flock to Facebook (Who has an ‘in network’ chat client of their own) and Twitter?
What do you think?
~P
2 Comments
Indeed – I used to send out link spam to get people talking; now i put it on twitter. It seems less obtrusive because people only check twitter / facebook when they are able.
still the equivalent of trying to chat in a noisy, crowded room. not as fun 🙂
I do the same thing – put my links and stuff I’m reading out on Twitter. It does give the person reading or following a choice. I think, just maybe, that a link popping up in IM is more likely to be clicked versus something in Twitter. Dunno for sure, just what I think.
As for the crowded room, JUST LEARN TO SHOUT WITH CAPSLOCK!
…kidding. 😀
~P
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