Twitter is my main portal for information. Lately, at least among folks in the Bay Area, I've noticed that many accounts I follow are starting to use Twitter as a syndication channel for the content they publish from other networks, and they don't reply back. The common one is that a few friends of mine will be hanging out together and create an Instagram or Path picture, push to twitter, and then I'd like to reply and say hello, but their attention is entirely on another channel.

What does this mean for Twitter?

What does this mean for how people like me want to use Twitter?

The same image on Instagram will get 30 hearts and 5 comments but on Twitter get 3 stars and no at-reply.

Twitter's channel seems to be becoming less interactive just in the last year.

Not sure if this is because of UI changes or because Twitter's community is less engaged now.

Pictures are a special use case, I think -- if you're out with friends and just want to snap & share a picture, you may not be thinking about tweeting -- that seems reasonable. Maybe the end game for twitter is to be 90% consumption anyway.

That's my guess: 99%+ consumption.

In the Twitter of the future, you pick the Celebrities, Politicians, Sports stars, and Brands you want to follow.

And then just sit back as their best stuff comes to you, 140 characters at a time.