Will Twitter last another 10?

A smile appeared on my sleepy face and a curious mix of awe and anxiety filled my heart when Twitter's birthday celebration mail hit my inbox this morning. Wow!? 10 years already? That's a solid track record for a social medium. No doubt about that. I started digging a bit deeper into the #lovetwitter hashtag and found cool recap video of the platform's highlights, as well as a funny clip shared by the Belgian Twitter team. It did make me feel a bit melancholic.

Why was that? Probably because I've noticed that i'm much less inclined to Twitter lately. I've been a relatively active user of the platform for 4 - 5 years or so - mainly to discover and curate interesting professional content in the digital marketing and technology sphere. A second draw for me is, or was, the immediacy of the medium and the fact that news seemed to be freshest there, especially at times of #lockdown, #prayforparis and other (sadly often tragic) events. I'm curious to see how the use patterns of the medium will evolve in the time to come within the global community and especially amongst the Belgian users, of which around 500K appear to have an account, active or dormant. Today's announcement made me contemplate on why I've seemed to loose interest in Twitter. Here are the three main reasons for me:

Increasing (social) media overload:
I currently find more pleasure and utility in using Facebook, Instagram (personal) and LinkedIn (professional) throughout my day. Most of the valuable digital-marketing related content I consume now comes from the latter platform, and more immersive and engaging formats on the two former ones mean that i turn to them when I want to be entertained. A digital newspaper subscription means that my thirst for news is quenched by quality full-size articles and that I'm gradually shifting  away from snackable content that seem to be the cause for procrastination more than anything.

Lost relevancy / immediacy edge:
Admittedly, Twitter is still one of the first media to break big news, no doubt about that. I feel however, that many online news channels have by now caught up and have the advantage of providing a more context and detail at a decent enough pace.

Perception of too little impact or activity:
I usually track all my activity on social networks with Hootsuite and Buffer and it strikes me that the engagement and viewability statistics on Twitter are dissappointingly low compared to for example LinkedIn, for everything related to the publication and curation of industry related content. Perhaps I should think harder about my content strategy, copy and CTA's, 'cause quite frankly, it now feels like I'm shouting into outer space with little or no reaction.

Have you felt a similar shift in your interest in the medium, and how do you expect Twitter to live on for another 10 years? Will the little blue bird still be around? I'm looking forward to hearing your view on the matter.