Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Twitter: Community Building for Commuter Campuses

Kelly Collier Rauh
Word Count: 986 + tweets (309)
April 7, 2009


Using Fragments to Defrag
Though plagued by coughs of “oops…” error messages, and that sick feeling you’ve wasted precious time reading pointless drivel, Twitter does offer one healthy remedy to the partially-connected atmosphere at colleges where no one lives on campus. Twitter is a unique communication medium for students to enhance social ties that are often fragmented on commuter campuses.
Fad With Staying Power
An August 2008 Fortune magazine article compared Twitter’s hot flash of popularity to two recent predecessors: Facebook (2003) and YouTube (2005). Both ancestors have been tremendous unifying factors among college students. “Twitter is…a free service that lets you send the briefest of messages to everyone in your network. Users prefer the term ‘tweets.’ Users ‘follow’ one another…at Twitter.com as well as by cell phone and on sites like Facebook” (Lashinsky 41).
With Facebook’s $500 million offer for Twitter in 2009 (Ante) and commercial giants Dell, Comcast and H&R Block finding it useful for marketing and customer service (Beckwith 50), it’s unlikely Twitter will be a passing fad, or one that fails to produce income. The power of the medium seems to have been historically cemented with Obama's presidential campaign tweets—astutely aimed at college-age voters—containing “announcements, rally locations, and election info” (Beckwith 50). Barack’s Twitter account shows over 737,000 followers and over 618,000 he’s following (Twitter). Twitter is “the big daddy of micro-blogging…While plagued by erratic service because of huge growth, Twitter remains the standard bearer” (Hargadon 15).
Hybrid Vigor
Twitter has remediated several forms of social communication prevalent on college campuses, resulting in a hybrid with some distinct advantages. It’s the electronic equivalent of passing notes in class, posting notices or tear-off-phone-number ads on bulletin boards, and voicing questions in groups. Twitter requires no printing. Tweets aren’t taken off their posting site (unless deemed obnoxious by monitors), and are less stressful than public speaking. Messages are akin to brief e-mails, but don’t carry the obligation of a timely response—or any reply at all—and won’t fill an inbox to rejection levels. Content is similar in length to text and instant messages, but no usage maximum threatens fees for exceeding allotted quantities. Twitter’s 140-character limit treats the boredom suffered by readers of blogs, and reduces mindless spam to tasteless morsels that don’t even need deleting—scrolling past successfully ignores them. Twitter shares a chat-room quality, but with a relaxed pace. There’s an intimate and realistic feel when students who interact physically on campus are in comparatively small Twitter groups.
Gaining Independence Interdependently
"Twitter is at the forefront of the real-time web," says Fred Wilson, a Twitter investor. "Blogs were the beginning…a progression from the static web. Now with Twitter… there is…smaller and ever more rapid bursts of information" (Lashinsky 40). “It's very easy to keep track of others; indeed, never before have we had this ability to be connected with so many people (Hargadon 15). An etiquette ‘rule’ explains how 140 characters at a time can forge such interpersonal connections: ''Add value. Build relationships. Think LONG term'' (Pogue).
Twitter helps bridge the generation gap on commuter campuses between older students and their classmates who typically graduated from local high schools this millennium—often beside the sons and daughters of those returning students. Twitter can link such diverse students through quick facts on each other’s Twitter biographies or as they glean tidbits of information in tweets.
Tapping Tribal Knowledge
Going beyond superficial answers to "What are you doing now?" challenges users to tap into Twitter’s dynamic capacity for rapid textual distribution of tribal knowledge. One Twitterer asked “if a certain project had been tried before. In 15 seconds, his followers replied with Web links to the information he needed. No e-mail message, phone call or Web site could have achieved the same effect” (Pogue).
Commuter campus students at Washington State University, Tri-Cities formed a Twitter group as an assignment for Language, Texts and Technology. After members bemoaned the shallow, narcissistic nature of many tweets, pleas for group knowledge, project support, and valid news resulted in helpful exchanges:
agustin_t Big event tomorrow! Live 9am Saturday at WSU @ Richland, Wa 5k Fun Run 100 people enter two leave as the victors!
sheila_wsu Guest speaker Myioko and the "campus striptease" in the east auditorium WSUTC starts @ 4. See you there!
tibbin Just saw a car on a hill on its roof about 5 mins after rollover on i-82. Scary
sheila_wsu can't figure out how to make my buttons have that nice looking rollover...ugh! I'll try again tomorrow
zwoffinden@sheila_wsu u can do it sheila! just use your insert rollover! i believe in u!!!!!!!!
tibbin Repackaging project printed and assembled. I feel really good about it! <3
JMC Yeah im finished in the mac lab..@tibbin: consider your repackaging project another WIN!! Nice Job!
agustin_t Oh yeah, this morning seen Twitter being talked about on ESPN's First Take.
AngelAlmaraz Today's Dilbert mentions the Turing test
KellyRauh You guys gotta see today's (Sat) Doonesbury in TCH. I never read it, but my husband pointed it out 'cuz it's about Twitter.
honda650@KellyRauh i don't get the TCH, how was that article on Twitter?
KellyRauh@honda650 Try going online to Doonesbury comic for Saturday 03/14.
AdamRoll How was the test?
tibbin@AdamRoll Surprisingly well, I think. Had an epiphany halfway through that worked in my favor I think. We'll find out in two weeks
zwoffinden@AdamRoll surprisingly awful, I mean after your extraordinary build up adam I was slightly disappointed the test wasn't easier
KellyRauh Which classes on DTC major list do y'all recommend the most? Or the least? Do tell, please!
JoshColby7 Kelly, 355. Look out though its really fast paced
shenanagins@KellyRauh Dig Imaging was fun. Only do it if you know a thing or two about photography, like photoshop, and can handle A LOT of projects.
shenanagins I'm in the MKTG class online now. It's super easy. So easy sometimes I forget it exists...
Peer Publishing: More Power, Less Pressure
Announcements of student activities on posters or bulletin boards generally require administrative approval, maintaining the hierarchy of publishing power. With Twitter, approval is bypassed, giving every student publication power. We traditionally consider colleges as publishers and students as researchers, but Wayne State University has "taken an original stand on Twitter. Instead of using the platform to communicate with potential followers…[it’s] a customer service tool to listen, address, and reply to any problems reported via Twitter….Mentions of…the institution's name (are) tracked and their authors ‘followed’….‘Students started talking more about Wayne State, both positive and negative. We made it a point to respond to everyone, figure out what they are having issues with, and offer our help’” (Joly 40). This turns students into research subjects, giving them more input into their college experiences.
Group e-mails have become so abundant that students often ignore them—whether from official sources or friends on their network fringe. Tweets aren’t opened individually, so readers make no conscious decision—based on a subject line—whether to absorb more text. Students who enable Twitter on their cell phones need not access their desktops or laptops to be in touch. Brief tweets fit well on screens of portable devices. Since the full sentences and correct grammar expected in email are compressed, standards are more casual. Even spelling errors are excusable as possible “thumb-typing” slips, so authors are freer to contribute without concern for collegiate writing guidelines.
Catching or Catching On?
Twitter is traveling the popular path across campus, following Facebook and YouTube. All three carry germs of self-absorption and threaten to infect schedules with wasted time, yet also provide social sutures. Twitter’s unique blend of instant portable messages, free mass distribution to chosen networks, and absence of obligation to respond present an opportunity—especially for commuter college students—to quickly bond in both sickness and in health.
Works Cited
Ante, S. “Facebook's Thiel Explains Failed Twitter Takeover.” Business Week Online. 2 Mar. 2009. Academic Search Complete. Web. 14 Mar. 2009.
Beckwith, S. “Is Twitter a Fad or a Solid Business Tool?” Black Enterprise 39.6 (2009): 50. Academic Search Complete. Web. 14 Mar. 2009.
Hargadon, S. “Microblogging: It's Not Just Twitter.” School Library Journal 55.2 (2009): 15. Academic Search Complete. Web. 14 Mar. 2009.
Joly, K. “Should You Twitter?” University Business 12.1 (2009): 39-40. Academic Search Complete. Web. 14 Mar. 2009.
Lashinsky, A., and D. Burke. “The True Meaning of Twitter.” Fortune 158.3 (2008): 39-42. Academic Search Complete. Web. 14 Mar. 2009. 2008, August 18.
Pogue, D. “Twitter? It's What You Make It.” New York Times 12 Feb. 2009. Academic Search Complete. Web. 14 Mar 2009.
Twitter, Inc. “Barak Obama.” Twitter: personal page. Web. 07 Apr. 2009.

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