My favorite social networking site - and the only one I use - is Twitter. Twitter is not only great for personal use, but it is a great outlet for journalists and business owners who want to market themselves and their work.
Twitter allows anyone to make updates in 140 characters or less. By restricting the number of characters allowed in a tweet, users must focus their ideas and only write what is most important. Also, this restricts people from telling their life story to anyone on the Internet. And unlike Facebook and Myspace, of which I use neither, Twitter makes it much more difficult for users to disclose excess information about themselves through pictures, profiles, message boards, etc.
If users want to post pictures or would like to show their personal sites, they can of course give the link in a tweet - which will then direct readers to the other site. Twitter is a great way to advertise a business site, a blog site or to share information online, and is also great for networking with other businesses or people who share similar interests.
Twitter has also allowed journalists to break news faster. As stated in the reading, "News happens on Twitter before it happens on news sites." Just think about the balloon boy story, or when Michael Jackson died, or the recent tragedy in Haiti. A great majority of people first heard about these stories via Twitter. Twitter has also become a lifeline for victims of the devastating earthquake. People trapped in rubble have tweeted using their mobile devises, and rescue workers were able to find their location.
When I first started on Twitter, it took me a while to get used to all the tools and "lingo" of the Twitter world. But now that I understand it, I'm such a tweet-geek!
As a networking device for journalists I think Twitter is great. I completely agree that Twitter allows people to receive information before they would get it elsewhere. However, as far as social networking devices go it is one of my least favorites. Twitter allows you to post status updates on your lives and thoughts. In some respects, Twitter is good because you can share links to interesting articles with those who follow you. But in other ways who really cares what you have to say? When I update my Twitter I'm constantly asking myself who cares that I have class today? Who cares that I'm happy it's Friday? Now, if I was a celebrity I think it's a wonderful tool to allow you to update your fans on projects you are working on without the worry of fake Facebook or MySpace accounts. And for journalists its a great way to connect with readers but for us regular people I think it's kind of pointless.
ReplyDeleteI see what Lauren is saying, but in your terms, Facebook/Myspace becomes pretty much the same. Who cares about your status update or personal info or pictures? I think the fact is that people DO care which is what has made social networking such a huge phenomenon.
ReplyDeleteWith regards to Twitter, I was originally completely opposed to Twitter because I thought it was just a status update like Facebook. However, I started using it this past summer during the Iran election controversies. With journalists being banned from the country and other sites like Facebook being difficult to access over there, Twitter was the main way we knew what was happening. News organizations like CNN were quoting from Twitter so it made sense to read Twitter as the original news source. I definitely see the benefits of Twitter, but I have to admit I've rarely used it since then.
I was introduced to Twitter during my first semester at AU in my Understanding Media class. One of our assignments was to create a Twitter account and start to use it to follow our professor and other AU affiliated people. At first, I was in the same boat as Rana. I was very skeptical about Twitter because I did not understand the ultimate purpose of it. I thought it was just status updates like the feature on Facebook. I didn't really care to know if someone was eating a cheeseburger or hiking up a mountain. Then as we began to use it for the purposes of the class I began to realize how important Twitter can be for the sake of journalism and disseminating information. At my internship at the washingtonpost.com, they began giving Twitter tutorials for the staff to teach them how to use it and this is where I really thought to myself, "Wow, Twitter really is important". Now I use Twitter, admittedly not as often as I used to, but sometimes and I really see how it is changing the journalism world.
ReplyDeleteWhile the extreme and forced succinctness of Twitter has its advantages, I worry it is too succinct. So people try to fill in what they can't in space with tweets instead. People spend so much time telling people what they're doing on Twitter that I worry it takes away from the actual experience.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading an article about two girls who'd become lost in a sewer system and instead of notifying anyone of where they were, they put it up on facebook instead. Someone saw the status and then notified the authorities.
People should be encouraged or even forced to reach out to the outside world more and more enthusiastically than a 140 character tweet about breakfast instead of actually going out and connecting with other people. The more we tweet, the less we connect.
Bryan, you wrote: "The more we tweet, the less we connect."
ReplyDeleteOther than the anecdote about the girls (which sounds suspect... though if true, it's worth noting that it worked), how do you support that assertion? I'm not saying it's not true, but that you need to back up that statement.
The others make excellent points about "not seeing the point" until you do. Isn't that true with all tools?
A hammer has no point unless you have a nail to pound. No?