The Twitter of Things

I started tweeting right around when I started blogging on analytics – between May 8 and May 18, 2008. It kicked off professional public speaking, intensified my contributions to the WAA, and pushed me even more into a weak tie among diverse communities.

I knew most of my followers by name, and met with most of them monthly. It was just a coincidence that 95% of them were in analytics. Even though I was living between Toronto, Calgary, Chicago, Vancouver and New York, Twitter was a localized, central hub.

I was in 5 places at once.

Twitter was a place where conversations happened out loud, in public, and other people who were interested in what we were interested in could come along. It was an always-on Web Analytics Wednesday. There’s somewhat of a Lwaxana Troi quality to it. And that’s what made it so grand.

This was the period of Twitter as a true conversation medium.

Twitter itself hasn’t changed of course.

I have. And I’ve noticed it has changed for many of my friends, too.

It’s increasingly an RSS newsfeed, each neatly organized into their own columns. So, usage changes.

I’ve long since stopped following the people who RT mashable and TC. (Seriously. Stop it.)

In return, I’ve long since stopped live tweeting major TV events. I don’t tweet from conferences as intensely. Sharp exchanges of image macros has settled out. There’s considerably less fun. Naturally, these are all changes in my own behavior – the difference between daytime Berry and nighttime Berry. And twitter is now the channel of choice for daytime Berry.

I’m still generating just as much content as I always have. If not more. I just don’t generate it on Twitter. I generate the funnest material anonymously. And at the root of that – of course – is becoming captive to those who follow you.

The pattern is only interesting because I went through the same thing with Facebook prior to May, 2008.