Twitter is without a doubt the best way to share and discover what is happening right now – Twitter, 2009. What is it then; a new craze? Well, it was founded March 2006, and launched publicly July the same year, so can we really call it new? Or the next social network giant? Just as Bebo users outsold the site for MySpace then abandoned that for Facebook will we all jump on the bandwagon and join Twitter? A friend tells me “No! It’s a completely different thing” Okay… It’s for updating your ‘followers’ with your current activities; ‘micro-blogging’ is apparently the official title for posting the ins and outs of your life online. Also, on the Twitter main page, prior to log in they have a search box to ‘see what people are saying about…’ and then your chosen subject, which could be anything, interesting or amusing.
So who is ‘tweeting’ then? Celebrities are all over it, businesses are using it, TV and Radio shows are constantly asking us to ‘follow’ them on Twitter. So why bother? What’s the incentive for the Average Joe to join Twitter? What do we have to say that people will want to read? Is it fun to post updates on our menial lives; does anyone really care if you’re going to the gym, or ‘bored’ reading John Stuart Mill?
Is it ‘celebrity culture’ that might encourage us to create an account in order to keep up to date with the latest Kerry Katona ‘news’ or most recent gossip on how Katie Price’s is managing without Peter Andre. Are we that sad that we want to stalk their every move? Is it not enough to have it flashing across the TV or their pictures on the front of every magazine? Where is the line drawn at the amount of obsession?
In my opinion, it is perhaps understandable to ‘follow’ things of personal interest – such as keeping up to date with the news. I joined Twitter and am currently following Downing Street – for daily news updates; the White House – for daily American politics; BBC Radio One for music updates and Burnley Football Club (I can’t possibly miss the clarets). It was my intention to check Twitter regularly for these updates, yet it has just not happened. There is simply no motivation for me to do so, having said this, I admit that there could be lots to gain from checking regularly – to receive the news on Twitter is perhaps easier than checking the BBC politics page every day and surely this could be replicated in other subjects.
The New York Times describes Twitter as “high tech trivia” and “the latest in time wasting devices”, but it goes on to say that micro blogging was put to good use in the Iran June 2009 Presidential Election where tweeting was used to organise protest and disseminate information in the face of a news media crackdown.
However, whilst this might be true and Twitter may be successful with certain types of people, it would seem that students aren’t particularly interested in Twitter, those I asked either didn’t care or said they had an account that they never used – no reason to, they told me, we have facebook to keep in contact with friends – I’m interested in what they might have been up to over the last few days or to organise a meeting but I couldn’t care less if their making toast for breakfast and surely the feeling is mutual.