Image remix: Carles

We’ve all heard of the MySpace graveyard–an obsolete social network with pages of unused, valueless content. Some of us have heard of Livejournal/Xanga/Geocities graveyards. But what if I told you that very soon, Twitter will be the next great digital graveyard?

Earlier this week, Twitter’s revenue projections were ‘lower than forecasted’ causing their stock price to plummet. Next, the wave of stories about Twitter’s problems have been published into the real world, then shared [via social networks] that are dependent upon social networks for traffic. This means that over the next year or two, ‘the media’ has the opportunity to tell the tragic story of the death of Twitter.

This is going to be more exciting than the over-documentation of the ‘downfall’ of Yahoo!… or so the content farms would have you believe….

Is it time to start carving a new digital gravestone to sit in the digital graveyard?
Can online media companies ‘fairly’ report that one of their traffic sources is ‘dying’?
Or is it in their interests to create news stories that hype up Twitter as an important source of news that reaches unique audiences of tastemakers and thoughtfluencers?

‘Reporting’ the death of Twitter means that content farms have already given up on Twitter as the centerpiece of successful digital strategy. Despite Facebook’s barriers to reaching an audience, there are still more opportunities to reach a sustainable audience of laggards on Facebook. The idea of a Middle American using Twitter to curate an important stream of unique voices seems absurd. They are just fine consuming timeless clickbait that is well-targeted to meet their needs.

Some content farms say that Twitter is dying/in serious trouble.

Screengrab: Slate

Other content farms say that Twitter is just fine.

Who can we trust when all online content is strategically designed 2 be shared?

Based on online media and social media, I once believed online media and social media mattered. Blogs & media outlets that reinforced that consuming social media was important. Now the media has told me that social media isn’t valuable whatsoever. Twitter is ‘no longer growing’ and faces too many hurdles to monetization. None of their hundreds of millions of users matter–instead Twitter uses SMS-userbases in Third World countries in order to make it seem like they are growing and acquired a remarketing company to better monetize existing users.

I remember when I gave up my’ following’ of 100k+ Twitter followers when the click-thru rates were ‘not even worth’ convincing myself there was an opportunity to reach viral markets. As a content farmer, the pressure to conform your website content to a social medium can be an exhausting way to construct the value of your content. Twitter has taught us that the truth doesn’t even matter–all you have to do is create something that is click-thru-able, shareable, and panders to the engagement metrics of the medium [via Ellen Degeneres Oscar selfie].

Image remix: Carles

What about me?
What about my perception of Twitter?
What about ‘real-time news’ and instant notifications?
What about ‘the global discussion’ of things that need to be globally discussed?
Is Twitter over-run with real-time fake news and over-notification?
Do I even belong on Twitter any more?
Or will I be buried alive if I continue to use the useless, past-its-prime digital medium whose click-thru rate depresses the users with the furthest reach?

Twitter’s user base is about 302 million people. 77% of those people are outside of the United States. When it comes to defining future growth and the financial valuation of an already sizable user base to shareholders, the future of Twitter will see it deviate from the American cultural value of Twitter. As a member of the media, this necessary path to remain ‘successful’ is one more argument for why it is already dead to an audience who will enjoy reading about a business dying.

Screengrab: Twitter

It’s impossible to know exactly why Twitter will die (unless you are a tech-thinkpiece writer or a billionaire who ‘gets’ the social-tech space), but what’s more important is that a stream of news stories that tell you Twitter is dying is the external narrative that will actually ‘kill’ Twitter [via public perception].

The most basic narrative for Americans will involve Twitter ‘turning’ on the people who are actually passionate about Twitter still being the same service that it was at SXSW 2007. The site is no longer about people who think they can use it as a ‘tool’ to follow unique voices and instant sources. Instead, they are bombarded with generic content farm fluff and strategic remarketing that also floods their Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat stories. With so much content, there is no scarcity. There is too much noise, and no one believes that every bit of information in their timeline is important.

I just wish social media sites and online services didn’t always try to convince every1 that they were redefining the way that humans communicate. Humans will always end up feeling lonely, like there is no healthy medium to connect with another human being.

Twitter has become the ultimate medium of remarketing. This is what happens when a popular medium is no longer perceived as disruptive. The ‘life’ can’t be added back to a graveyard like Myspace.

A publicly traded company is expected to scale infinitely. Unless you become a private public utility that everyone is forced to buy, you are a failure. You are no longer a small business ‘trying to change the world.’ Because you are a failure, the media gets to slam you until investors no longer deem you valuable based on random blog posts like this one (or other important trading algorithms).

A tech company dependent upon arbitrary social engagement begins to die the moment that their investors no longer view the abstract nature of a product or service as an opportunity to imagineer value. The users like to believe that they have been ‘betrayed’ and/or abandoned, moving on to a different medium of communication that appropriately alots their bandwidth. This is the dream that the media can sell them.

For early adopters of Twitter, the medium is a place where people still believe they are at the center of the world, where trends happen and they are the ‘most up to date.’ They will continue to ‘roll out features’ that put celebrity access at the forefront. For example, Twitter recently ‘rolled out’ a slick frontpage, meant to be way less confusing to people who are just joining Twitter.

In order to create a digital graveyard, a unique set of forces must synergize in order to make a medium that was once valuable socially and culturally ‘no longer seem worth it’ to not just the users, but also the ultra-affluent who pump in money to fuel industries that people believe are important.

It’s just so sad about Twitter.
It’s so sad that content farms are saying goodbye to one of their most revolutionary referral sources.
It’s sad that online media will create a Twitter death narrative.
It’s sad that Twitter celebs will have to/have already pivoted to Instagram to publish the exact same content.

Media companies can no longer brand their voice and content as being part of an important, real-time global discussion on Twitter. Unless that discussion is about Twitter dying. There may or may not be established ethics of publishing nodes of content that are 10% interesting and 90% dependent upon social media engagement to create sharable news.

Life on the content farm is hard–you have to write deeply personal eulogies for the eternally obsolete. We are all on this slow death march together.

Carles.Buzz is the fallen content farmer behind HIPSTER RUNOFF. Read more Life on the Content Farm here.