January 22, 2010
By Rebecca Gladden
In the original Star Trek television series, a famous episode dealt with an unintended invasion of the starship Enterprise by an overabundance of adorable fuzzballs known as Tribbles.
On the Enterprise bridge, overrun by the cuddly creatures, Mr. Spock laments the fact that Tribbles are consuming the ship's supplies - while returning nothing of value.
"Oh, but they do give us something, Mr. Spock," protests Lieutenant Uhura. "They give us love."
Captain Kirk responds, "Too much of anything, Lieutenant, even love, isn't necessarily a good thing."
Which leads me to the title of today's column.
The NASCAR media, along with the sport's PR people, drivers, team members and fans, have fallen in love with Twitter in recent months. When I created my Twitter account on January 3, 2009, it seemed there was just a small group of NASCAR-related tweeple, and only one prominent driver - Max Papis, who joined Twitter a few weeks before me.
Now, almost every prominent NASCAR writer and blogger has an active Twitter presence, from ESPN's Marty Smith to the AP's Jenna Fryer, along with many of the sport's notables from various realms.
Twitter has undeniably changed the way racing is being reported. A practice I call "track-to-tweet" all but eliminates the need for fans to wait for interview transcripts, video postings, or print articles to learn what drivers are saying in interviews and press conferences.
This week, NASCAR media blogger John Daly, editor of TheDalyPlanet, raised some hackles on Twitter when he suggested that social media exposure of the Charlotte Media Tour was bordering on overkill - with multiple reporters, NASCAR and team PR reps, and others in attendance tweeting virtually the same information simultaneously.
"Twitter technology forces all this information into the same pipeline," Daly told me this week. "Understandably, reporters want to report, PR reps want to publicize, and NASCAR itself wants to be the official Twitter presence of the sport. This led to literally hundreds of identical tweets being sent throughout the day."
Obviously, Twitter participation is voluntary; no one is required to join Twitter or follow multiple accounts all tweeting the same news. But, as Daly notes, there may come a time when NASCAR will have to consider whether "15 or 20 identical tweets need to go out during the races saying 'the caution flag is out.'" Daly worries that "without some commonsense coordination, fans will be forced to remove some of the accounts to simply slim down the amount of redundant traffic being sent."
Perhaps, like the garage itself, NASCAR's Twitter presence will be self-policing.
But there is a concern among those who see the value in a medium like Twitter, when used responsibly, that overuse could have a backlash.
As Daly points out, "Without Twitter, the news would be announced by the teams, recorded by the media, and then stories would be sent to individual websites and publications." Twitter circumvents traditional media practices and may, in fact, hasten their demise.
My prediction is that eventually - perhaps soon - NASCAR on Twitter presence will fall victim to the law of diminishing returns - that is, the tendency for a continuing application of effort or skill toward a particular project or goal to decline in effectiveness after a certain level of result has been achieved.*
For now, Twitter is an exciting and emerging technology that continues to surge in popularity.
But enjoy the ride while you can, because every wave has its crest.
*American Heritage Dictionary
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