Twitter Dumps ‘What Are You Doing?’

Twitter’s user-entry prompt question — “What Are You Doing?” — has long been inadequate to the task of defining the multiple ways people use the microblogging service. Worse, it has been the set-up for the greatest cliche of countless Twitter-bashing articles, “No one cares what I’m having for breakfast.”

Today Twitter revealed that “What Are You Doing?” has been replaced by “What’s Happening?” Company co-founder Biz Stone made the announcement in a blog post this morning:

Twitter was originally conceived as a mobile status update service–an easy way to keep in touch with people in your life by sending and receiving short, frequent answers to one question, “What are you doing?”…

The fundamentally open model of Twitter created a new kind of information network and it has long outgrown the concept of personal status updates. Twitter helps you share and discover what’s happening now among all the things, people, and events you care about. “What are you doing?” isn’t the right question anymore—starting today, we’ve shortened it by two characters. Twitter now asks, “What’s happening?”

Two quick thoughts: 1) It sounds as though they’re trying to be hip, but in an ’80s kind of way. Which sort of comes out to “not hip.”

2) It’s amazing they didn’t crowdsource this decision. Think of all the free publicity! The Huffington Post would have turned it into a three-month contest.

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.