overhyped. fad. voyeurism. invasiveness. obsessiveness. distraction. kool-aid. exhausting. digital narcissism. novelty. addictive.

Yeah, pretty much. Those are some of the things being said by a small minority who are bucking the trend and are essentially saying: Twitter is a waste of time.

I’m 85% on the side that Twitter is a waste of time … but I stand to be corrected.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Twitterati have all come out gushing and with that the herd (that’ll be you and me, folks) usually follow. And we are following. And in great numbers too. Enough to slow down the whole thing (tip: be wary of slapping on a twitter-type widget in your sidebar - as many sites I’ve tried to visit have be slow to load because … it’s waiting for twitter to load).

Twitter is essentially IM on steroids. It’s blogging, sms’ing and im’ing all rolled into one.

And if Robert Scoble (and Steve Rubel, who absolutely, positively just loves Twitter to death) loves it does that mean that it’s a surefire winner? If that’s a Yes, then damn all ye followers… :-) You don’t have to be an “early adopter” just for the sakes of being an “early adopter.” Or is the peer pressure of the blogosphere clouding your judgment?

Not all people are quite enamored with Twitter -
RIP Twitter (2007 - 2007). A 100+ comments speaks volumes.

I might not be in that boat just yet, but I’m still struggling to decide whether Twitter does it for me or not. At this stage: it does not, but I can be easily swayed.

Watch out for the slew of everything Twitter-related - TwitterThis and TwitterThat. The third-party add ons are already appearing in their droves. And really, that is what I’ll be watching.

I’m sure that one day, soon hopefully, a Twitter add on will appear that will flick that switch in me and I’ll be saying: “God damn this Twitter is so cool…”

So Twitter in it’s current usage … do you really want to know what I’m doing every minute of every day? Because at this stage, that’s pretty much what is going on in Twitland. Hopefully that will pass.

The information overload bubble is growing, and it’s growing at an amazing pace. Twitter proves it.

And to those that are ditching blogging in favor of Twitter … cool, more room for us.

The potential upside: Twitter (and its concept) is so new, so raw that who knows where it may lead. The one good thing about everybody jumping on this bandwagon is that more minds are being put to work (probably right this minute) with how to hack around Twitter to make it more productive, a business tool … whatever.

There are smarter people than me who probably see so many uses from the Twitter base. I’m watching.

I love this comment, because it sums up the way I see many in the ’sphere do things …

Why use Twitter? Because everyone says to use it

Duncan Riley over at 901am recently asked - Does Twitter have substance?

Nick Wilson does a nice podcast on Twitter.

If you’d like to read further discussion (more than 140 characters) about Twitter then head on over to TechMeme, Technorati and/or your favorite aggregator - they’re all covering it to death.