I’ve read a lot lately about the turmoil at Twitter, the failure of Quirky and the scorn poured on GitHub, UpWork and other platforms.

I recall a similar set of challenging prose set to Wikipedia…

How it had hit its peak, and how it was now largely for people to mess about on adding stupid comments that needed moderating.

So have we burst another dot com bubble?

Has the social media revolution finally come to a grinding halt?  Have we now reached a situation where we can comfortably dive back into our inboxes, our newspapers and look forward to a quieter life?

Twitter’s not growing fast enough say the stockholders who want to see it rake in more cash.  GItHub is now an unfriendly place where new coders are scorned by narky veterans.  And Quirky failed because new ideas don’t grow on digital platforms and become amazing ventures overnight.

No, the bubble’s not bursting; it’s just shaping itself for its part in the universe of connectedness is my assertion. Even if you take Umair Haque’s damning indictment of Twitter’s trolls, snarks and argumentative nature as symptomatic of why people aren’t taking to it.

“Yet look at Instagram’s growth,” they say. Different things going on with these two platforms and this is like comparing bicycles to skateboards.

I’ve been around long enough to see skateboards have about five dawns and twilights. Maybe more. There are though some amazingly committed boarders and parks still have kids ground surfing and working up tricks.

Peak and troughs I guess which is ironic considering the design of skate parks.

Growth is the thing that’s being used here. Growth. We’re CONSTANTLY thinking that if something isn’t growing, it’s dying.

What about if something’s reached a nice plateau and it keeps humming along nicely…that’s still alive isn’t it?

Twitter’s still the amazing hub of fun and insight it always was for me. And thanks to functionality, I can mute those people who say stuff I find infuriating. I can unfollow and block those trolls and spammers. I am in control of my feed. And until it drops off a cliff or they shut the doors I will stay with it.

Contrast this to LinkedIn. Which I use. Infrequently. I use it to post occasionally and share a little and connect of course. It is growing, it has revenue and Reid Hoffman looks smarter than Jack Dorsey or Dick Costolo.

People have said the same about Google+ for ever.  Yet with its communities function it has something I adore. MY people, connecting to me about what we believe in.

Echo chambers; signing to the choir – whatever you like. If it’s where I find comfort, exchanges, kinship, camaraderie or keeping in touch it’s a SOCIAL network. Not a debating platform.

So are we heading into a non-growth social networking phase? Maybe we are. Are people shunning Twitter for its noise and Google+ for its lack of noise? Maybe but if they are, I’m not missing out.

The best posters of the best content use them all as a web of connectivity. To Medium blogs; to Buffer posts; to YouTube clips.

We’re just getting it how we like it is all. Those who will never tweet will not be encouraged by more ads or a small fee. Those who hate the ads and won’t pay a fee if there’s one introduced, will drop off.  It won’t grow numbers; it might channel and grow more revenue.

It seems to be a coming together of the fun and upstart nature of social networks with the chink of coinage that comes with revenue generation.

Facebook’s done OK hasn’t it? Yes and I use that more than I did with overseas friends who don’t tweet, aren’t on Google+, or don’t use LinkedIn.

Facebook (for me) is still riddled with banal posts, rubbish GIFs, useless campaigns and popularist myths. It has ads.

And nothing I’ve ever seen on there I’ve clicked on and bought. It clearly works for some advertisers else why would they shower Zuck’s empire with cash?

It’s cash that’s the measure of the investors. Not societal good, educational good, good for people.

But cash and growth – they’re not the only measures. Commitment, usefulness, fun, energy, connections, spirit.

Before going with the “social media’s falling” messages let’s remember we’ve STILL got the newspaper, though social media was supposed to kill those off.  People are buying vinyl still, and MP3s were supposed to kill that medium off too. We still like real books although we probably all have a Kindle or e-reader app. We make choices as users and consumers. 

We may not be as exuberant as we once were about our use of a social network. OK things may not be as large as they once were but they often find their space.

And talking of space, Myspace still has 50.6m active users. The rumours of my demise etc etc.