We know I don’t think much of Twitter, even though I Tweet Boles Blogs Network updates.  I’m sort of the lonesome stepchild standing in the street yelling to everyone around me — “But the bird has no feathers!” — while the restless crowd around me Tweets about Twitter’s beautiful plumage. 
Over the weekend, my Twitter rage was redeemed by Twitter itself as it finally confessed its utterly dark yearnings in an official blog post telling us they only value protecting the identity of celebrity and fame and not the everyday ordinary Twit like us.


Here’s Twitter flipping us the bird straight from their selfish beak:

We do recognize an opportunity to improve Twitter user experience and clear up confusion beyond simply removing impersonation accounts once alerted. We’ll be experimenting with a beta preview of what we’re calling Verified Accounts this summer.

The experiment will begin with public officials, public agencies, famous artists, athletes, and other well known individuals at risk of impersonation. We hope to verify more accounts in the future but due to the resources required, verification will begin only with a small set.

Can it be any clearer?

If you’re rich and famous and popular and well known, Twitter will “authenticate” you — but if you’re just a regular person, Twitter doesn’t have “the resources required” to verify your identity.

Twitter is, and always has been, an elitist advertising schema impersonating a social networking tool.

Twitter is not about Tweeting your life; Twitter is, and must always be, about big companies trying to sell you something and the first step in that transformation is a separation between those that are verified and those who are not.

Twitter could easily find the resources to verify everyone who wanted to be authenticated by simply charging a small fee for the service — but even that change of meme from free to “pay to play” stings those who helped shoot Twitter to the top.

When you are authenticated, you will surely also be paying, and you will be given deep access to the mounds of data Twitter has been keeping about every Tweet sent since its inception.  You can see which topics are popular and who and what is hot. 

Remember, Twitter was founded by ex-Googlers, so they know how to mine data and sell access to privatized public information.

These Twitter changes will be a loyalty test.  Will a for-pay service lose its free playing minions that provide it mass but little depth? 

Or will Twitter become what it was always meant to be:  The new electronic Pennysaver where everything and anything has a price and is for sale even if it’s your local “authenticated” celebrity inviting you to dinner at McDonald’s Friday night for the Early Bird Twitter Special.   

2 Comments

  1. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
    Gordon Davidescu says:

    I figure that they will “eventually” get to us. I see what you mean, though. It is mighty elitist of them to do it that way.

  2. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
    David W. Boles says:

    Gordon —
    It looks like they’re might be using an SSL certificate to verify companies and stars on Twitter. If they use SSL or something, and not an existing OpenID service, then that will be extremely expensive.
    I don’t think the regular people will ever be verified unless, of course, a payment is made.
    “Protect your identity: Pay Twitter to Authenticate You.”

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