New media has spawned a generation of Crackberry fiends. We text, BBM, blog, film, Skype, upload, edit, Photoshop, crop, Goggle, download, photograph, tag, Facebook and e-mail. The list goes on.’
And now, we can tweet.
Twitter, the brainchild of Silicon Valley clan Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Evan Williams and Biz Stone, allows people across the globe to chirp about their lives 140 words at a time. These bits are known as ‘tweets,’ or micro-blogging. Right now there are approximately six million users worldwide.’
It’s similar to the new Facebook news feed minus the extraneous items ‘- photo albums, event notifications, birthdays, friend requests, etc. It’s just you and your fellow tweeters, talking via tweets.
‘A year ago, it was a weird little toy. Now, its potential seems significantly greater than that,’ said Jason Pontin, editor in chief of Technology Review, in a June 2008 Toronto Star article.
Some people consider Twitter the next Google. The chatter in the tech world is that it’s the newest search engine, a way to find out live news at the exact moment it happens. It’s simple, quick and entertaining.
Once you join Twitter, you create a name. Then you start tweeting. You choose friends to ‘follow,’ which means their tweets show up on your news feed as they happen. If they choose to follow you back, your tweets appear on their stream.
When someone starts following you on Twitter, an e-mail notifies you. And yes, random strangers can ask to join your band of devotees.’ ‘ ‘
Confused? Don’t be. It really is that simple.’
I decided to satisfy my curiosity and became a tweeter this month. One of my first posts was ‘What. is. Twitter?’ I followed up with: ‘I hate Twitter.’
A March 2009 article by Farhad Manjoo, technology columnist for Slate magazine, pulled Twitter investor Todd Chaffee’s quote from a recent AdAge.com article.
‘You put a question out to the global mind, and it comes back,’ Chaffee said. ‘Millions of people are contributing to the knowledge base. The engine is alive. You get feedback in real time from people, not just documents.’
Who’s ‘tweeting’
So, millions of people are contributing to this ‘base.’ Isn’t that in essence what Wikipedia is, and aren’t students explicitly told not to use citations from there? Who are the contributors, and why do they matter?
An example: When U.S. Airways Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson in January, Janis Krums, a Twitter user, tweeted ‘There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy,’ according to a Jan. 16 article in the NY Daily News.
He posted an iPhone photo of the crash and suddenly the Internet was a twitter with reactions.
A similar situation occurred after the Nov. 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Eighty tweets were sent to Twitter via SMS every five seconds. These tweets were pleas for help, information about helpline numbers, missing person inquiries and lists of the dead, according to a November 2008 article on CNN.
Twitter was the only site that carried news while the event occurred. Therein lay its importance.’
Accuracy of information is the problem. According to Manjoo, ‘It’s possible that Twitter could do very well- but probably not as a social network, and probably not as a search engine.’
I agree. Have we really gotten that bored of reading a full newspaper article or legitimate blog post that we now limit our thoughts to 140 words or less?
Apparently, yes. As information finds its permanent home on the Web, quantity seems to increasingly usurp quality’s position. The world now needs talented, savvy keepers of information to help control the information stream.’ ‘
There is an option on Twitter that allows you to view tweets from everyone. Excerpts from my news feed at the moment:
‘shawntelle: Up early, working before my coughing and hacking children stir from their Den of Evil.’
Well. Good thing her children are probably too young to tweet.
Next: ‘banditb – typed wrong name in my login process;’ ‘icancounttoF – Really mad at my mother:’ ‘minmae – Ew. I hate how i say things in a wrong way.’
Who cares? I certainly do not.
I thought Facebook was eerily addictive. Now, you can let people know how you are reacting to life as it occurs, all the time. It’s like a mass text to those who live online.
Twitter simply seems like a place to reach out via the computer, and a place to wait for a response.
Some tweeters, though, use the site to its highest level of intelligence. For example, I follow Nicholas Kristof, a columnist from the New York Times. He posts links to his newest articles or thoughts from the field. Ann Curry, NBC’s ‘Today’ anchor, does the same.
Companies use Twitter to reach out to a live audience on a consistent basis. They know their followers are interested in their tweets. Smart marketers can use Twitter to make their latest product or release more accessible. Even President Barack Obama twitters (or he has someone do it for him, at least).’ ‘
In my opinion
I realize that Twitter is just as important as other social networking sites. As print media dies hard and transforms into blogs, links, YouTubes and tweets, I think it is crucial as a college student to master the tools of our world.
UWire, the site that runs stories from student media outlets all over the country, has the tagline ‘Powered by the Content Generation.’ This is what we are. If you want to get ahead in the communication or journalism industry, you need to know what is out there and how to use it. It’s unacceptable to ignore the alternate realm of the internet.’
So, while I think Twitter is a silly, often shoddy news source, I do see its aptitude to influence the future.
I will still tweet, as long as you do, and as long as tweets remain important to my skill set.
Otherwise, it’s a pointless venture.
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