At the start of the new decade, many are questioning what lies ahead for social media networking sites.  Twitter remains the target of skeptics who point to stagnant membership and mock the micro-blogging mecca. Simultaneously, tweeters and commentators have come to the site’s defense, alleging Twitter is here to stay.

Skeptics point to mediocre 2009 in numbers

While the latest social media network reported a small bump in membership in December, its end of the year numbers were a staggering 24% less than June 2009.  Ironically, while Twitter was featured more and more frequently in cable news broadcasts – and stood at the center of the Iran election coverage in June – the network hemorrhaged members.  Twitter’s growth problem has thus become a billion dollar question: how can the social network grow? Some analysts are pointing to the immeasurability of new Twitter members, as an increasing proportion of members are tweeting from mobile devices and via apps, which were not captured in the statistics.  Others claim Twitter has not yet reached a critical mass, like Facebook already has, encouraging potential members to join to keep track of everyone else they know.

Twitter makes sharing information simple

Yet, Twitter remains extremely popular and has been put to great use recently in light of the earthquake in Haiti, as tweeters are sharing thoughts, needs, websites for charity, and prayers through the social network.  New York Times media reporter, David Carr, remains optimistic about the future of Twitter.  In his article titled “Why Twitter Will Endure,” Carr argues that Twitter allows for the consumption of a massive array of information.  Yes, people tweet about their choice of cereal, but they are also sharing news articles, videos, blogs, and discussion boards where responses are not limited to 140 characters or less. As Steven Johnson, another journalist and technology commentator for TIME, observes, “the history of the Internet suggests that there have been cool Web sites that go in and out of fashion and then there have been open standards that become plumbing. Twitter is looking more and more like plumbing, and plumbing is eternal.”

By now if you have not heard that there was an election in Iran, then you have either not been on Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo!, MySpace, Digg, CNN, FoxNews, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, National, local, and international newspapers, and simply been living as a hermit in a long lost case where civilization is the furthest thing from you.  But since you are reading this that cannot be the case.

Today, Friday 06/19/09, major companies such as Apple, Google, and Facebook announced support for Persian language.  Apple has done this with their SMS’ being possible in Persian, Google Translates to Persian now, and Facebook is available in Persian too.  And if you believe that is only company, think again.  Twitter rescheduled their maintenance so that the Iranian people inside Iran would have a means to communicate because the government had shut down sms/texting, and disconnected cell phone towers, and kept everything under watch.  Even Internet sites are being filtered and censored.  With Twitter for example, because their are so many applications using Twitter’s open API, it is extremely difficult to filter those servers because their IP address differs from Twitter’s main IP.  In fact, there are countless proxy servers setup out there with people from all over the world assisting in this digital revolution.  Regular folks, Americans, Europeans, Japanese, and more are all partaking in the first true digital revolution.  And this is all being done through Social Media platform like Twitter, Digg, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and many, many more out there.

To see tweets from inside Iran, you can follow the hottest “trend” on Twitter, or follow two students tweeting from within the country:

twitter.com/change_for_Iran

twitter.com/iranElection

Social Media is not going anywhere, it was indicated with the power of Obama gaining incredible following using these tools, and it is being cemented in the world as not only a cool tool, but as a power changer, as a ways to gain freedom.  Through the likes of Twitter and Facebook the world will know that through sheer will of power, anything is possible.  Let the dream of unity, the dream of freedom, and the dream of a better tomorrow ring true for the people of Iran, and the rest of the world needing their own CHANGE.