Why Twitter Is Overhyped

Twitter is always something that’s always confused me. I understand the attraction of being in contact with famous people, and it does make sportsmen, politicians and experts seem more accessible. On the flip side, looking at a twitter feed is a pretty boring way to spend your time.

I guess I don’t understand why people are interested in – mainly – boring tweets that don’t contain much information at all. For example, I follow Cristiano Ronaldo, and his tweets are rarely more than “training for game on Saturday”. Not exactly earth shattering news. Admittedly, most people are more entertaining than this.

There are a few people who I enjoy following though, and these tweeters are the only reason I keep my account. The occasional “battle” between high profile celebrities can also be entertaining to watch, as can watching an athlete go on a rant after being dropped (thanks Kevin).

On the other side of the coin, many people on Twitter aren’t as boring as the impression given to people who don’t use it. I rarely see anyone posting about their eating habits, for example, which is something that’s much more common on Facebook. Usually an interesting tweet is simply a quick summary of an informative or funny link, so you could argue that Twitter is just another medium for sharing websites amongst like minded people.

So overall, Twitter is definitely overhyped in my opinion, but worthy of a few minutes a day checking to see if anything interesting has been posted. Subscribing to high quality blogs related to your interests is a much better way of getting good information though.