Twitter, prophecy, and the 1998 Nokia Communicator
The next 50 people SAVE $65, a 70% discount, by clicking here. But you have only 24 hours to use the links! After that, the course is full price.
Back when I was writing on paper.
Back in 1998 when I was writing a technology column for a Sunday newspaper, I wrote that I couldn’t imagine anyone wanting email on their mobile phone. Why, I wrote, would anyone want to get email on the bus?
I’ve dined out on that story of near-sightedness for years. I use it to illustrate everything from why you shouldn’t believe what you read in the newspapers to, more specifically, why you shouldn’t listen to me.
I wanted to use it today to talk to you about Twitter, so I thought it would be fun to see if, after all these years, I still had the column and I could quote you exactly what I’d said.
Imagine my excitement, therefore, when I found a yellowing A3 clipping from the Sunday postmagazine of the South China Morning Post‘s 3 May 1998 edition.
I was reviewing the Nokia Communicator, which Nokia called a “mobile office”.* I said that was like calling a sandwich bag a mobile fast-food outlet. So far, so right.
Then came the well-remembered paragraph:
“I am addicted to the Internet. Already I eschew** the phone in favour of e-mail, often ignoring it when it rings and replying to voicemail messages in writing. If I could check my e-mail and browse the Web on the bus or in a restaurant I would probably forgo all non-electronic interaction: a good thing for those around me but a setback to my rehabilitiation into society.”
So in fact I didn’t ask why anyone would want the internet on the bus. I recognised that indeed I’d love it and would prefer it to talking to anyone. I was RIGHT! What a PAIN!
A great anecdote lost to the truth, but ready to rise again into one about my foresightedness and self-awareness.
Remember you have only 24 hours to use the special links at the bottom of this post to get the course for free or to save $65
Now we’ve recognised I’m a prophet…
Okay, so it turns out from my faulty recollection of writing about the Nokia Communicator 15 years ago that I am in fact a prophet of the obvious, so gather round and listen up while I tell you something else obvious with complete confidence:
Twitter is here to stay. It’s not a fad, it’s not madness, people won’t get bored with it.
Or, if it’s not Twitter itself, something very like it.
Let go: It’s time to accept it’s here to stay, and learn how to use Twitter
You don’t get hundreds of millions of people saying, “We like communicating this way, we find it useful and rewarding”, then find that way of communicating goes away to be replaced by something unrecognisable.
I can’t say it’ll be Twitter providing a Twitter-like service in five or 10 years, but there will be an equivalent.
If you’ve been hanging on, it’s time to let go
If you’ve been hoping that Twitter will go away before you have to get to grips with it, it’s time to let go.
I’ve been running courses on Twitter for awhile and I know that some of you are feeling left behind.
But the facts of Twitter are simple:
Bad news: Other people do understand Twitter, and they are getting ahead by using it.
Good news: You can catch up in about two hours, if you have the right instruction.
Which brings me to my final point…
More good news
(If you can’t see the video, click here.)
I’ve taken my popular offline course What the hell is Twitter? and turned it into an online course.
You can still ask me questions, just like a live audience, but you also get:
Screen videos showing you exactly what to do
And still the pleasure of listening to me talk, just like you would if you were with me in person
Details and, if you’re in time, a chance to get it for free or at least save $65
The course includes 2.5 hours of video instruction and comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
What the hell is Twitter, the course as it appears on Udemy – the Academy of U
FOR 24 HOURS ONLY: My brand new online course What the hell is Twitter? is free to the first 20 people who sign up with this link. [Update: free passes have gone]
The next 50 people SAVE $65, a 70% discount by clicking here. But you have only 24 hours to use the links! After that, the course is full price.
* Among other things, the Nokia Communicator could send faxes
** I’ve always been pompous.
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