Twitter is a micro-blogging service that started up in 2006. (Zappavigna) The service is based around the question, “What are you doing?” It invites users to answer this question and share it with the entire world. Everything that is going out through the ‘tweet’ can be shared with everyone. It states this right in Twitters terms and services that “You are what you tweet.” (Twitter) It goes on to void responsibility for whom the content is shared with while boasting its respects for intellectual property. Ultimately the sharing of content is at the users own risk, but Twitter reserves the right to restrict the users services at any time (Twitter)
At its core, Twitter is a free sharing of ideas and thoughts. It can be anything from what the user ate for breakfast or their views on foreign politics. It is all up to the person tweeting. Unlike other social media there is no direct expectation to respond to a post by another user. (Zappavigna) There are two directions that a user can go in. For some businesses they are using the service to promote their brand. Some public relations and marketing firms have opened departments that only deal with social media. (Anonymous) The majority of users however are tweeting as a way to move the conversation forward.
On the majority of news broadcast there is a Twitter feed that scrolls along the bottom with live updates of what people are saying on the content of the broadcast. The shows generally promote hashtags that are used to filter the content that is being shown. It is interesting though as most shows do not necessarily moderate what is being said in real time. So what users are talking about is generally not bias to what the news show would like it to be. The reality is that the adaption of twitter into the mainstream media is a response to twitter being a better resource. They are trying to compete with the sheer speed in which twitter is spitting out news. When most twitter users are looking for a real time update on breaking stories they will go to their news feeds before turning on CNN.
There is also the theory that twitter creating an interpersonal shift. (Zappavigna) The original use of telling everyone what you are doing begins to change into this platform where the user is making observations on different topics that are generally relevant to different users creating more of a community. In this newly formed community language is the main focus. (Zappavigna) Everything needs to be said in fewer than 140 characters. It can be argued that this cheapens language and forces short hand and improper use of grammar and style. On the other hand these restrictions force users to be concise. If something needs to be said in more than 140 characters there will often be links to articles or other sources. This gives the users access to vast mounts of information that is organized by short titles and descriptions.
Today twitter has 200 million users, tweeting over 140 million tweets a day. (Picard) It has changed they way people get information and how they interact with the media. It gives everyone the opportunity to be their own micro-blogger and get their thoughts out into the world in the simplest way possible.
Work Cited
Anonymous. “Who Owns Twitter?” Marketing 116.14 (2011)Print.
Picard, Andre. “The History of Twitter, a 140 Characters at a Time.” The Globe and Mail, sec. Technology: March 20 2011. Web.
Shepherd, Tamara. “Microblogging and New Media Policy.” Global Media Journal 2.1 (2009): 149. Print.
“Terms of Service.” Twitter. 2011.Web. <https://twitter.com/tos>.
Zappavigna, Michele. “Ambient Affiliation: A Linguistic Perspective on Twitter.” New Media & Society 13.5 (2011): 788. Web.