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  • Twitter, you’re not a person

    Posted on November 16th, 2009 by Spike and currently 15 commenting.

    Rumor has is that the panel that’s choosing TIME’s Person of the Year is split between Twitter and and The Economy.

    Wha?

    Okay, according to a WIRED article, this isnt’ the first time a non-person might win the award. In 1982, “The Computer” got the nod. Since then a fair amount of non-persons have won: The Endangered Earth (1988), The Peacemakers (1993), The Whistleblowers (2002), The Good Samaritans (2005) and, of course, You, in 2006.

    I get it. I know that naming Twitter person of the year would get a lot of buzz. But let’s take a look at some of the reality: via The Viral Garden, a recent report from Compete shows that Twitter traffic is actually declining. Nielsen reports that 60% of users quit within the first month. Not to mention that Twitter traffic from the US is holding at about 20 million total visitors per month.

    So does Twitter deserve to be named Person of the Year? No. It’s a tool. It’s a technology. And technology can be a trap. How easily we forget that when we focus everything on our Twitter strategy, the human-factor seems to get pushed to the wayside. If there’s nobody to use the tool, then is that tool really useful?

    Twitter, you can be fun. You can even be useful sometimes. But you’re not a person. I would say “sorry to hurt your feelings,” but, um, you don’t have any.

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15 Responses to “Twitter, you’re not a person”

  1. Chris Bailey November 16th, 2009 at 6:46 am

    Spike, your rant is misplaced. Don’t blame Twitter for being Twitter. Blame Time’s panel for being idiotic enough to choose it. And yes, it would likely garner the magazine plenty of buzz of both positive and negative forms. Its too bad Time is pandering to the lowest common denominator…there are far too many people who are doing great work in the world and not receiving enough recognition (see Greg Mortenson (http://www.ikat.org/) as Exhibit A).

  2. Spike November 16th, 2009 at 6:57 am

    Great point, Chris. You’re totally right. What can I say? Ranting makes me feel good.

  3. Meg Ried November 16th, 2009 at 7:02 am

    I think that this very bizarre that its even down to things, Twitter and the Economy, that are not even people! A lot of us are sick of hearing about the buzz of Twitter and the Economy in the news, could they really be that uncreative and lazy to not find one person? I agree with what Chris said that it is said that this is what we are coming to, that they cannot people who are doing great things in the world to receive the award.

  4. Bill Free November 16th, 2009 at 9:46 am

    Chris is right, but why waste a good rant? That’s what blogs are for.

    So is failure to find a person to receive your “person of the year” award a staggering cop-out, or is there something else going on? I suppose Time could have made Biz Stone and/or Jack Dorsey its big kahuna, but I’m in the anticlimax boat with Spike on that one.

    I think Time has it half right. It’s not Twitter or its humans that are award-worthy, and I’m not even sure what they’re recognizing when they say “new economy.” But microblogging, social media in general, even WOM are vectors pointing towards fundamental changes in the way people interact with business. That might be award-worthy. The people behind it would definitely be newsmakers. It’s just too early to tell.

    Me, I’d just give it to Kanye West and call it a day. Nobody reads magazines anymore anyway.

  5. lkld (Laura Lee Dellinger) November 16th, 2009 at 11:49 am

    Twitter Comment


    Check out: “Brains On Fire Blog » Blog Archive » Twitter, you’re not a person” ([link to post])

    - Posted using Chat Catcher

  6. Mack Collier November 17th, 2009 at 7:38 am

    This is a stunt just like it was a stunt back in 2006. It really worked in 2006 cause it was one of the first times that mainstream media focused on what was happening with social media.

    I don’t think they’ll get nearly the bang this time around.

  7. Scott Townsend November 17th, 2009 at 9:00 am

    People get so caught up and easily distracted by the tool. They forget about the craftsman weilding the tool. That’s a shame.

    A chisel in my hand will get you a busted up, chipped piece of rock. A chisel in Michelangelo’s hand will get you the statue of David.

    We should celebrate the craftsmen, not the tool.

  8. Nick Dean November 17th, 2009 at 10:25 am

    The economy isn’t a person either. Seems like the panel at TIME needs to get the definition of “person” right before they start nominating non-persons.

  9. 1day1brand November 17th, 2009 at 12:33 pm

    Folks, we’re all being played for PR here. We’ve got to stop contributing to all the noise.

    Besides, Kanye deserves to win.

    – Axle

  10. Glenn Edley November 17th, 2009 at 4:17 pm

    Nice rant Spike.

    Yes we might be being played Axle but if no one rants Twitter might get the vote and how utterly ridiculous would the Time panel look….

    Probably not as bad as the Noble Prize panel but a close second.

  11. tomrapsas (Tom Rapsas) November 17th, 2009 at 7:32 pm

    Twitter Comment


    Will Twitter be Time “person” of the year? Good perspective from Brains on Fire blog: [link to post]

    - Posted using Chat Catcher

  12. Mandy_Vavrinak (Mandy Vavrinak) November 17th, 2009 at 7:33 pm

    Twitter Comment


    Twitter, you’re not a person [link to post] > don’t get caught up in the tool.

    - Posted using Chat Catcher

  13. Leigh November 18th, 2009 at 2:43 am

    Yeah but they have cool new offices in San Francisco. TIME on the other hand……

  14. 1day1brand (Distility Branding) November 18th, 2009 at 3:11 pm

    Twitter Comment


    Twitter, you’re not a person! By: @BrainsOnFire [link to post] ^A ^A

    - Posted using Chat Catcher

  15. Hot Topic: TIME’s 2009 Person of the Year is… Twitter?! « The Student November 25th, 2009 at 11:10 am

    [...] days later Brains on Fire blogged about the WIRED announcement on its website. The article entitled “Twitter, you’re not [...]

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