I get Twitter.  I like Twitter (although I don’t really use Twitter all that much).  And there’s no denying how its been taken up by the mainstream media now.  And the techno-sphere loves to talk about Twitter almost as much as … well, I’m not sure.  A quick survey of Techmeme shows that there are several stories about twitter every … single … day.

In fact, if it weren’t for data to actually support Twitter’s meteoric rise a real “internet” utility if there ever were one, one might be inclined to believe that Twitter’s popularity is more a function of media loving Twitter than anything else (although, let’s be honest — it still has a ways to go)

Which brings us to Time’s story about how ZOMG Twitter will change our very lives as we now it (the title being parsed loosely by me)

The funny thing, I find, however, is the assumption that Twitter’s awesomeness will inevitably translate to Twitter’s ubiquitous future.  Take for instance the article from Caroline McCarthy last week on the relatively slow pickup by adolescents and young adults to Twitter.

I found this article to be telling for two reasons:

1. It is completely in line with my own totally non-scientific observations – namely, that every single young person that I’ve met (as in, in person, and not online) who has a vague interest in technology between the ages of 10-20, and / or people who do come into contact with young folks on a regular basis, all tell me they are “not on Twitter”, or that kids “just don’t do Twitter”, or “they don’t ‘get’ Twitter”.

2. The implications it has for the “ZOMG its a Twitter Future y’all!” messages – including the one that I didn’t know would yet be written by Time.

Long story short: I don’t think we can yet assume that Twitter’s future is guaranteed.  As much as Twitter is trumpted on mainstream outlets like CNN (which loves Twitter), I think its still very much in the early adopter phase.  There are still far too many variables for it to cross that chasm, not the least of which is the demographic factor that was mentioned above.

True, adolescents and young adults may yet get hooked onto Twitter.  There’s still time for that.  On the other hand … they may yet not.  Or, not enough of them will for it to make a generational difference before something “else” comes along to occupy that particular microblogging / social networking space.