Paid to Tweet?

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1925991,00.html

This is an article I read in Time Magazine about Twitter. It explains how more and more companies are paying everyday people to "tweet" about their product on their personal account. I thought it brought up an interesting point: "Paid tweeting also raises questions about disclosure: If someone speaks highly about a product on Twitter, don't followers have a right to know if that messenger is a compensated mouthpiece?"

So this isn't entirely pertinent to our class but it is interesting.

Also- in class we were discussing how long we think Twitter may stick around. I found this statistic in my husband's Graphic Design USA magazine: "Nielsen Online reports that more than 60% of Twitter users in a given month do not return to the site the following month; some months 70% abandon the service." The article went on to explain, "The Nielsen folks speculate that we may be experiencing a fad, and one reason is lack of meaningful content." However, part of me wonders if the short postings are perfect for a society whose attention span collectively keeps shrinking. In journalism, articles are forced to become more concise- why wouldn't the same brevity be applied to our social networking habits?