Is Twitter Taking Over Mobile Communications?
Lately, I’ve come to realize that I Twitter is taking over my former means of mobile communication.
I recently received my cellphone bill and last month I sent and received around 600 text messages total. This is down from my normal 1500 - 2000 a month stats. While I was a tad surprised, it made me wonder whether I twittered more than I text messaged these days.
All Stats Point To Twitter
Corvida’s TweetStats - http://www.tweetstats.com/graphs/corvida
As you can see, last month I sent well over 1000 twitter messages. Twitter is definitely replacing text messaging as my primary source of quick and short communication. One reason behind this is that I’ve stopped texting some of my friends back. I’d rather they just Twittered me or called. On another note, I’ve also moved most of my social life online.
This isn’t the only form of communication that Twitter is taking over for me. My minute usage is also down tremendously. I only used around 700 minutes last month compared to a 1200 average and it’s all because of Twitter. Here’s a look at some other causes for my Twitter takeover.
Twitter Helps Effectively Build Relationships
One of the best things about Twitter is being able to grow your own network. I have 550+ followers and wouldn’t dare try to keep in touch with them all through my phone. For one, that’s just too many minutes being used. Secondly, you can’t just call everyone and everyone is not going to give you their number.
However, to grow your network, you need to be able to keep in touch with people and for some people, the socializing aspect needs to be consistent. You can be easily forgotten with well over 500 people vying for attention. Twitter effectively allows us to keep our names in the running without worrying about disrupting someone’s work schedule or calling "at a bad time."
Maybe I Don’t Have A Life
Have you seen the shades I wear in my avatars? I’m just as much of a rockstar in real life as I am here. However, offline, I’ve already established relationships and it’s never been necessary for me to constantly talk to my friends. Also, my groups of offline friends are much smaller than my Twitter followings.
On the other hand, a few of my "online friends" are beginning to spill into my offline life. What I mean by that is that I’m talking to them over the phone and even looking forward to meeting them over the summer. However, with these group of friends I don’t really need to use my phone. I just Twitter them and they do the same. Though, I do think Google Talk and Skype are replacing my phone calls via my cell phone also.
Are you experiencing the same shift? If so, what are your causes? Has an increase in your followers on Twitter played a role in the decrease of your mobile communication usage?
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