10 reasons why Twitter sucks

Posted by Ben on September 22, 2009 | Permalink | Hits: 1817 
Tags: twitter, social media, networking

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Previously at Top Ten Blog Tips, I've published posts that explain why Twitter is worth using, along with some tips for getting the most out of Twitter. This week, I've decided to turn the tables and focus on why Twitter sucks! Here are 10 reasons. (Image by CC Chapman.)

1. Few people have anything useful to say - there's a lot of chit-chat. Not everyone needs to say something insightful every time they post, but if it's just chat, does everyone need to see it? There's often a lot of noise on Twitter - we can't enjoy every comment - but I usually feel swamped, or bored.

2. Every media outlet is jumping on the bandwagon to tell us how Twitter is "taking the world by storm". We know.

3. Some people claim to be able to "keep up with" 20,000+ followers. But in reality, many of them do little other than spam us with links. OK, so having a lot of followers does not automatically mean that you do this, but how many people can you really keep up with?

4. The navigation is a disaster. Try reading through your old tweets and you'll see what I mean.

5. Single-tweet spam accounts get created by the thousand. There are moves to combat this, but it seems like too little, too late.

6. Certain people think it's clever to start competitions, such as trying to be the "first person to have 1 million followers", most of which were single-tweet spam accounts (see #5).

7. Automatic DMs when you follow someone. Yes, there are ways to deal with this, and I almost always unfollow someone if I get an immediate DM when I click follow... but perhaps following someone and accepting DMs from them should be separated. Most people don't need to contact me privately. A few do, and that's fine, but I don't receive many non-spammy DMs.

8. Trending Topics gets spammed by everyone under the sun. I once found an account that listed hundreds of names of people who had died, saying "so sad..." to all of them, and including the same link (assumed to be something dodgy - see #10) on every tweet. I skimmed the list and none of the names were of people who had actually died. (Yes, I reported them.)

9. How many people are experts on Twitter? How many just say they are?

10. Malware does a worryingly good job of hiding behind shortened links.

Bonus point #11: A lot of people retweet before they check if what they're sharing is accurate!

Incidentally, I don't mind Twitter... but I haven't had much time for it recently.

What do you think? (Follow me on Twitter if you like!)

Comments on 10 reasons why Twitter sucks

7

Ben | October 25, 2009 | 190 comments

Thanks for the comments everyone! :)