I just returned from SXSW in Austin where I had a chance to participate in a panel about visual thinking with Lee LeFever, Sunni Brown, Dave Gray, and Tom Crawford. We had a huge crowd in the room, and there was a lot of Twittering going on, most of which you can read here.
Seeing all those fingers flying and tweets popping up got me thinking. In a few short years we've gone from individual website content authors writing thousands of words of text for big websites to lots of friends writing thousand of tiny notes to each other.
Seen visually, the progression looks like this Teeter-Totter diagram...
There is a clear trend here towards fewer words delivered with increased frequency. Given that each new web technology remains hip for a shorter time than the previous, we should pretty soon see Twitter's replacement in the form of a one-word blip that is constantly updated by everyone alive.
Let's call it -- whatever "it" is -- BLIPPER.
Tagging, it's the next black ;)
Posted by: SayediMac | December 22, 2009 at 01:08 PM
What's next: one letter?!!
Posted by: Erwin Sigterman | October 02, 2009 at 01:49 AM
U ARE OK
Posted by: AKIN | July 28, 2009 at 05:41 AM
Imagine how consise language would have to become to convey an entire thought in a single word!
Posted by: Sean (@SeanMalarkey) | July 08, 2009 at 01:37 PM
pendulums!!!! It will get back to the middle but with better semantic things!
Posted by: Juan Pablo Villani | July 02, 2009 at 03:05 PM
Agree!
Posted by: Chris | May 06, 2009 at 11:19 PM
Morse code, dots and dashes...why not? .-- .... -.-- / -. --- - ..--.. according to this site: http://twitclicks.com/3z9j
Posted by: Lynn C | April 06, 2009 at 08:54 PM
replace "1 word" with "1 image"
Posted by: Marcus | March 27, 2009 at 01:13 AM
An interesting perspective! :-)
Though I agree with Charlie Gray about the fact that each of these communication methods still has its purpose.
Twitter has definitely added value to the range of ways in which we can connect and share information. But it's not replaced all other forms.
The advent of the motor car certainly to a large extent may have replaced the use of horse-drawn carriages and bicycles. But both horses and bicycles are still valuable for many practical or recreational purposes.
Perhaps not a great analogy, but it's the one that came to mind. :-) Just as each form of transport has its purpose, so does each form of communication from websites, to blogs, FB, Twitter and beyond ...
(Twitter: @SueJ1)
Posted by: Sue James | March 23, 2009 at 09:40 PM
I've been thinking about this, and the next big thing for me I think will be the use of GPS mobile systems, suddenly you can take something like Twitter and be telling people in the nearest 20 mins. So say your in the mood to go to a film, you'd post it up and maybe you'd get someone to go with. Or find someone else who's going and comment about it. Twitter is too global, you localize it and i think you have something new.
Posted by: Charlie Gray | March 22, 2009 at 05:16 PM
This is pithy and insightful but I also think it's wrong. At least for me personally, all those old forms haven't gone away, it's just that I can now choose the medium in which I want to express a particular idea. Sometimes it's a tweet. Sometimes it's a blog. Sometimes it's a full page on a web site. Sometimes it's a tweet linked to an explanatory blog backed by a tumblr log of links over time.
Posted by: Alex Miller | March 21, 2009 at 08:35 PM
Considering the depths to which discourse has sunk these days I would call this new tool "Bleeper" and the one word messages "bleeps".
Posted by: Michael Montgomery | March 20, 2009 at 10:16 AM
Tweeter is just a tool to encourage people to keep writing without having to worry about format or completeness. Along this line, there will be new social technology that can extract our thought faster than we can even type.
Project management these days need fast actions and responses. Eventually, I would hope to see an easier way to update documents and project plan while we are going through our project life cycle.
Posted by: Vince Chew | March 20, 2009 at 10:00 AM
To be honest the future beyond twitter is among us we just aren't using it yet! It is themobile phone using bluetooth as a tool to briadcast and find like minded folk..
imagine, your phone buzzes , John so and so has just walked past and he loves this music and that book just like you, would you like to interact...send him a blipper to make contact!!
See what I mean?
Posted by: X Wide P | March 19, 2009 at 06:02 PM
I agree that's the direction we are moving. While it's neat to see more people using twitter, it does show that people's attention spans are getting shorter and shorter.
If you talk too long, people lose interest very fast. Which makes using visual diagrams and interaction very important in this digital age.
Posted by: Matt | March 19, 2009 at 04:55 PM
Next thing, no written words, but video. It's here. 12seconds.tv
Posted by: Paul Chaney | March 19, 2009 at 01:42 PM
Blipper already exists. It's a site for brief reviews of movies, books, etc. The domain name glbr.com is for sale. (Not by me, just pointing this out).
Posted by: joel | March 19, 2009 at 01:38 PM
The new service will be called SLOP. In fact, you can have that name, Sequoia Capital or whoever funds this. SLOP.
Posted by: Rizzo Tees | March 19, 2009 at 01:12 PM
these things are demanding.. thats it.. maybe sending smileys would be the period.. a smiley for anything u wanna say..
Posted by: Account Deleted | March 19, 2009 at 12:31 PM
VizTwiz?
Vizer?
Viser?
Posted by: Michelle Malott | March 19, 2009 at 12:29 PM