Yesterday there was a bit of activity in our office surrounding Pownce, a "new" (its not that new) micro messaging tool in the vein of Twitter, but a touch more sophisticated (if I've already lost you, hit the links for the wikipedia entries on both services). There are quite a few things I like about Pownce (social ratings, file transfer, conversation threading, events posting, etc). But as I poked around in my little experiment, I realized that it was missing something. Something critical.
It wasnt nearly disruptive enough.
It would be somewhat misleading to say that I've been using Twitter for about a year. Far more accurate would be to say that I've been using Twitterific for about a year. If you know anything about these technologies, then you're probably doing a head slap right now. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, Twitterific is a display app for Twitter, that basically turns tweets into desktop popups. And in that seemingly simple functionality, Twitterific becomes one thing that Twitter alone is not: really obnoxious.
Twitterific transforms Twitter into a screaming baby. Every time you get a new tweet, Twitterific pops up, interrupts whatever your doing by covering it up, and then hits you in the face with a boxing glove on a spring. Sounds awful right? It is. But its the only reason I used Twitter for more than 2 days. The "in your face" nature makes it impossible to ignore, keeps you perpetually in tune with the Twitterstream (whether you like it or not), and embeds itself as a part of your daily existence. If Twitter was any less subtle then a dramatic, attention starved child on a sugar high it wouldnt work. It would slip into the background and eventually into obscurity. Twitter is interesting, but ultimately forgettable without Twitterific. Pownce is even more interesting, but no less forgettable if it is not paired with a similar "screaming baby app".
Part of being one of those Millennial types (I hate that word almost as much as pedagogy) is having a built in twitch switch that is perpetually set to 11. Its why I love the tangents of Family Guy. Why I dislike long paragraphs without line breaks (but curiously feel compelled to write them). Why uncut camera shots make me uncomfortable. Why I love the little ding my email client makes, the fact my Xbox pops achievements up right in the middle of the screen, and the way Facebook spams my inbox with messages about the most obscure things imaginable.
I have always known that I enjoy the disruption. That is not to say that I moonlight as Tweek from Southpark or that I'm incapable of having a sustained thought for longer than.... <wanders off>. But yesterday was the first time in my life that I had noticed a need for disruption - to the point that it could influence my decision to use a new service. I suppose, in a way, its very similar to RSS. "You want me to go to a website? HA!".
Obviously services like Twitter and Pownce are about a lot more than interrupting everything you do (sort of). Obviously both services have associated products designed to bring their message to the highly caffeinated. And obviously not everyone who uses them is quite so... cross wired as I am. But its interesting to sit back and reflect on just how important, how curiously desirable the interruptions have become. As these technologies continue to surface, how big a role will the delivery method play in adoption among people like me? Will delivery become as, if not more important than a service itself? Does Twitter smell so sweet without its highly disruptive bouquet? Does anything? And what will this mean for the desktop of 5 years from now?
Sure its disruptive, but is it disruptive enough for me to use? I wonder...
Image from beststuff.com
It wasnt nearly disruptive enough.
It would be somewhat misleading to say that I've been using Twitter for about a year. Far more accurate would be to say that I've been using Twitterific for about a year. If you know anything about these technologies, then you're probably doing a head slap right now. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, Twitterific is a display app for Twitter, that basically turns tweets into desktop popups. And in that seemingly simple functionality, Twitterific becomes one thing that Twitter alone is not: really obnoxious.
Twitterific transforms Twitter into a screaming baby. Every time you get a new tweet, Twitterific pops up, interrupts whatever your doing by covering it up, and then hits you in the face with a boxing glove on a spring. Sounds awful right? It is. But its the only reason I used Twitter for more than 2 days. The "in your face" nature makes it impossible to ignore, keeps you perpetually in tune with the Twitterstream (whether you like it or not), and embeds itself as a part of your daily existence. If Twitter was any less subtle then a dramatic, attention starved child on a sugar high it wouldnt work. It would slip into the background and eventually into obscurity. Twitter is interesting, but ultimately forgettable without Twitterific. Pownce is even more interesting, but no less forgettable if it is not paired with a similar "screaming baby app".
Part of being one of those Millennial types (I hate that word almost as much as pedagogy) is having a built in twitch switch that is perpetually set to 11. Its why I love the tangents of Family Guy. Why I dislike long paragraphs without line breaks (but curiously feel compelled to write them). Why uncut camera shots make me uncomfortable. Why I love the little ding my email client makes, the fact my Xbox pops achievements up right in the middle of the screen, and the way Facebook spams my inbox with messages about the most obscure things imaginable.
I have always known that I enjoy the disruption. That is not to say that I moonlight as Tweek from Southpark or that I'm incapable of having a sustained thought for longer than.... <wanders off>. But yesterday was the first time in my life that I had noticed a need for disruption - to the point that it could influence my decision to use a new service. I suppose, in a way, its very similar to RSS. "You want me to go to a website? HA!". Obviously services like Twitter and Pownce are about a lot more than interrupting everything you do (sort of). Obviously both services have associated products designed to bring their message to the highly caffeinated. And obviously not everyone who uses them is quite so... cross wired as I am. But its interesting to sit back and reflect on just how important, how curiously desirable the interruptions have become. As these technologies continue to surface, how big a role will the delivery method play in adoption among people like me? Will delivery become as, if not more important than a service itself? Does Twitter smell so sweet without its highly disruptive bouquet? Does anything? And what will this mean for the desktop of 5 years from now?
Sure its disruptive, but is it disruptive enough for me to use? I wonder...
Image from beststuff.com
Then there is also tumblr.com and google recently purchased jaiku.com, so the market is getting filled up quickly by the "big" players, so it must have some potential.
Great post. I've been thinking about why, after a flurry of Powncing, I wandered away but Twitter (and really, by that I mean Twitterrific) is still what I check. The answer for me seems to be mostly because Twitterrific brings the party to me and, after all, what is more important to me than catering to my whims and interests? And that might be the most interesting thing about this; that, in the final analysis, we go for what is not the more sophisticated application, but the more convenient application. Not that I am that much of slacker, but because I'm juggling too many things at once and my shortened attention span can't pore over things that require too much effort to incorporate into my already over-encumbered routine. Even if they are fun, I can't add more fun to the fun I'm already having unless the fun comes to me. Or at least that's what the voices in my head keep telling me. YMMV :)