Zach Woffinden
Dr. Farman
LL&T
April 9, 2009
WC: 967

Tweet-er-ific: My reaction to Twitter

My thumbs seem to be aching for something to type. My mind is racing with things to say, it’s a clash of verbal diarrhea and the naked dream wrapped into a cute blue bird, Twitter. Once I signed up for the tweeting and the following, I soon realized that I was signing away my right to privacy, for whatever I write can be read by anyone.

The word shocking comes to mind, maybe creepy, and a little vulnerable. But soon my inner twitterer had hatched and I was in full flight. Now with the capability to reply and receive twitters from my cell phone, I want everyone to know what I’m doing.

What is this phenomenon? Simply stating: microblogging. Manipulating the basic rules of small talk, creating a free flowing digital brainstorming, and announcing digital headliners, Twitter has brought in the revolution of microblogging.

Small talk or better known in the world of twitter as daily chatter, allows the twitterer to “talk about (their) daily routine or what people are currently doing” (Java et al. 2007, p. 8). Basic rules of small talk were to have one person try and create a conversation from nothing and hoping the listener would care what was being said. Now with the creation of microblogging, focusing on Twitter, the twitterer can “tweet”, post a comment, on their home page for everyone to read, and with a membership starting at over 94,00 in April 2007 when Twitter was first launched (Java et. Al., 2007, p. 1) and has done nothing but increase, there are a lot of people to read your posts.

Paul McFedries speaks on the goal of Twitter in his article entitled, “All A-Twitter”, “the goal of all this twittering seems to be to enhance one’s cyberspace presence…” (2007, para. 5). McFedries goes on to point out that many of those who have a Twitter account also own accounts to other social networks, such as MySpace or Facebook (2007).

Twitter has caused myself among thousands of others to branch out and become present in many areans all the while remaining at my compter desk. I created a Twitter account, actively update my Facebook page, and heavily rely on contacting others through email and test message. What does this really al mean, one I have a lot of extra time on ym hands, and two there has been an egg implanted in my head that triggers a need to be known, and its call is being answerd fervently and not just by me.

Looking beyond the face of daily chatter, Twitter is also being used to share information, especially URLs (Java et. al., 2007, p.8). If I want to personally retrieve anything I had written, or read, or was influenced by I have the ability to run to my Twitter Home page and scroll through the hundreds of tweets, or send out a tweet to my followee’s.

The idea that you can share information digitally is not a new idea but rather a re-twittered idea. Emails, blogs and databases were all in affect before the hatching of Twitter, but what Twitter offers that others cannot is “constant-contact media” (McFedries, 2007, para. 3-4). “Blogging is hard”, the need to update daily a short monologue is time consuming, and lack of knowing if anyone is really even reading your blog can rain on anyone’s parade.

As I have come to experience with microblogging on Twitter, I can connect my cell phone to the my Twitter site, be notified of any of my friends latest tweets, post my own tweet, and even reply to someone’s tweet. I have connectivity like never before. Some people are putting a positive twist on this concept of constant connectivity.

With that constant connectivity people have reached out to create movements and causes in which followers on Twitter are responding. The uniqueness of Twitter is not the ability to just drop your thoughts off, like in a personal diary but to reach unlimited amounts of people. One aspect of Twitter is to find other people to follow or tweet with; this creates an atmosphere of exploration within a simple setting. A setting that even in the jungles of Africa can be explored.

Joseph Kimojino, a Kenyan ranger and recent hatched blogger, hit some hard times recently. The Mara Triangle wildlife park, the place of Kimjino’s work, went broke after Kenya’s post election violence, so Kimjino reached out the digital world to find some help. And help he found, receiving donations that have kept himself and other rangers and the wildlife reserve over all up and running (Meehan, 2008, para. 2-5). Texting in news updates from rangers patrols to Twitter, with the help of expert blogger William Deed, and uploading pictures onto a photo gallery called Flickr, Kimjino has highlighted how Twitter is the digital headliner (Meehan, 2008, para. 11).

With the character limit per post at 140, short and sweet is the only way to go. Twitter moves beyond the newspaper static headlines and creates digital interactive headlines, such as Kimjino’s story, but also with the sharing of websites weather forecasts, and videos (Java et. al., 2007, p.8).

Wrapping up the uniqueness of Twitter, I conclude that Twitter sprouts from the basic foundations of human communication, where the twitterer can send out a message to all those that want to read it, this also creates a specialized atmosphere where groups of interest can gather rapidly and remain constantly connected. Finally if properly used the affect of microblogging in Twitter can gather help and awareness around the globe in such an unheard of way until now. “Twittermob” or the “Twitterati” maybe the next step in the journey of Twitter but as for now the little bird is singing and will only continue to tweet (McFedries, 2007, para. 5&7).

References

McFedries, Paul. (2007, October). Technically Speaking: All A-Twitter. Spectrum IEEE, 44(10), 84.

Meehan, Emily. (2008, May). Life, Death, and Twitter on the African Savannah. Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/print/culture/lifestyle/news/2008/05/kenya_blogger

Java, A., Xiaodan, S., Finin, T., & Tseng, B. (2007). Why we twitter: understanding microblogging usage and communities. New York, NY: ACM.