Thursday, April 9, 2009

Twitter

Agustin Tovar
DTC 375
Dr. Jason Farman
4/09/09
Essay #4
Word Count 962

"What are you doing?"
Twitter has transformed the way we socialize and communicate with each other, and in turn has had an affirmative impact upon our societies ability to speak with one other.
Twitter has been the rage to communicate with people. It’s quick, easy and convenient. Can be done in any place, and at anytime as long as you have some type of Internet service. It is a way to send or receive messages or Tweets (user updates).

You have up to 140 characters to work with. Other users who subscribe to you can read or send you messages and you can also allow or restrict other users. Twittering has revolutionized microblogging and conversational tools. Look at the media, the public and professional sports. It was seen during President Barack Obama’s address to Congress on February 24, 2009. In the NBA Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has found another way to vent about his teams games, he Twitters it. (Walker) Cuban was arguing
that referees had made bad calls as well as other officials calls, it didn’t last very long he was fined by the NBA shortly after a few Tweets. Everybody seems to Twitter,
celebrities, politicians etc. are all weighing in on this. You can follow daily tweets from Seth Rogan, Madonna or even better someone like Warren Buffet. It is the hottest form of social networking happening today.
The history of one of the most talked about social events was shelved at one point because of its complications. Founder Jack Dorsey was working as a dispatcher software developer when he came up with Twitter idea. His original idea in 1999 was to be able to shoot off messages to his friends at lightening speeds, but the users that he was trying to communicate with didn’t have the same type of devices he had so it was put on hold until 2006. In 2006 Twitter was initially funded by Obvious, a creative environment in San Francisco, CA. The service grew so popular that in 2007 Twitter grew into Twitter Incorporated. (Twitter) Since then it has been the third most popular social network to emerge since social networks appeared.
“The goal of all this twittering seems to be to enhance one’s cyberspace presence, an
elusive concept that seems to refer to being “out there” (wherever “there” is) as much
as possible. Peel back the layers of a typical Twitter user and you’ll probably find that
he or she also maintains a regular blog, a Facebook or MySpace account, Second Life avatar, and so on. The dream is to achieve a sort of virtual omnipresence. Such people
are said to be ultraconnected.” ( McFedries 84-84)
The concept of Twitter has pushed the envelope of communication. It has begun to grow into its own entity. It has reached its potential within its space and time. Twitter has taken older forms of communication and condensed them, simplified them and delivered them even faster and more mobile than before. It is a modern
form of remediation. Clinging to the same idea that media feeds off one another, although this type networking has created its own type of media by making networking simple and
easy, affordable if not free and instantaneous, something everyone wants. It has spawned many ideas supported by Twitter if not in the name of Twitter. There are all types of sources that utilize the Twitter. When have you ever heard of a pro athlete microblogging something during a game? Or automatically hear about something that just happened a half world away? And to even read thoughts from some of the most influential people around the world.
Although it can be argued that Twitter is just another blogging site, another way to waste time and that its real value lies in how much money the founders make. This is what a closed minded person may see in these medias. Is that there is ways to be unproductive or wasteful yet make it look hip and fun. Because although Twitter is very finesse in its mobility, don’t people have better things to do? How is Twitter going to change my life or will it make life better? If Twitter is revolutionizing social networking, doesn’t that mean that we as people should be able to create something physical, something great, and something useful instead of modernizing how we talk to our friends? These are age-old arguments that can go forever, but do carry valid points to them. The future of Twitter could be “Twoogle”, rumor has it that Twitter could be bought out by Google, but if that happens Google may not be able to do what Twitter did to begin with, communicate easily without too many distractions or dilution of the product. Twitter may not be able to sustain its identity if this is to happen. But this is just a rumor. No it will not please everyone, nor will it stop world hunger. It could probably be just another novelty that will come and go. I’ve never been attracted to blogging, Facebook or Myspace, but after Twittering for the first time I admit it does have potential
to it. It just has to be utilized as a more of an effective, efficient means of communication. But the fact that it has generated such a huge following is poignant to the specifics that people from the world can be brought together by 140 characters or less.

Works Cited
“About Twitter” Twitter 2009 April 2009
http://twitter.com/about

Walker, Dumont “Twitter's Impact on the NBA” The Bleacher Report
March 2009
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/147680-twitters-impact-on-the-nba

McFedries, P., "Technically Speaking: All A-Twitter," Spectrum, IEEE , vol.44, no.10, pp.84-84, Oct. 2007
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=4337670&isnumber=4336089



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