“As Ashton Kutcher becomes the first to collect 1 million followers on Twitter and Oprah Winfrey sends out her first tweet, tech observers are debating: Does Friday mark a new peak for the microblogging service? Or the beginning of its demise?” CNN began it’s concession article, bowing to Ashton Kutcher who edged them out for the first to gain 1 million Twitter followers.
In case you’re afraid to ask what Twitter is, here it is from the horse’s mouth (or rather, their Home and About Us pages): Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? Twitter has grown into a real-time short messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices… all around the world, people access information via Twitter as it happens—from breaking world news to updates from friends.
It feeds our need for speed, so why would its newfound popularity bring about its demise? Overhype? “It’s really about everyday people having a voice,” said Ashton Kutcher, Twitter Millionaire. And that’s good, right?
Kutcher also realized it could be used to mobilize people to do some good in the world, so Kutcher challenged CNN, saying he would donate 10,000 mosquito bed nets to charity for World Malaria Day in late April if he beat CNN, and 1,000 if he lost. CNN agreed to do the same.
Winfrey joined in the fun, tweeting Friday morning that she would donate 20,000 mosquito bed nets to charity, and then another popular Twitter user, “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest, agreed to donate too.
So all in all, Twitter is changing the world and with incredible speed!