To "Tweet" or Not To "Tweet"

A few months ago, one of my friends told me to go to their “twitter” site. At first, I had no idea what that meant. When I went to the site, I remember thinking to myself, what is this, the next Facebook? I thought it was pointless because all it had to offer was constant status updates. You could let people know where you where and what you were doing at any moment. In fact, you didn’t even have to say that much. You could include a random thought, website, or picture you found funny. Initially, I thought that the site was completely unnecessary. However, months later, I have seen the obsession with Twitter explode. Suddenly celebrities are on there so you can follow their every move. Even Obama “tweets” daily, letting you know what his latest move is. The fact that “tweet” is even a verb demonstrates the phenomena of the site. In February 2009, “Compete.com blog entry ranks Twitter as the third largest social network”.

In the larger scheme of things, Twitter further proves that our society is completely infatuated with social interactivity. Sites like Twitter and Facebook are able to explode because we live in a world where everyone is obsessed with the immediate flow of information. People constantly want to know what is happening in their friend’s lives and even in complete stranger’s lives. It’s not enough anymore to have one update a week of what people are doing. Twitter provides the opportunity to let people know whatever you want them to know as many times a day as you want. There is even a function where you are able to receive notifications on your phone of these status updates, including the ability to update via your phone or the website.

Our world’s obsession with the flow of information connects to almost every element of our pop culture. The tabloids, shows like ET and TMZ, radio stations, blogs like Perez Hilton, CNN and more, are constantly informing us of what is happening in the world up to the very second. Recently, Facebook tried to purchase Twitter and Twitter would not accept thus leading to Facebook’s revamped version of itself. The similarities between Facebook’s “new look” and Twitter are very apparent. Facebook has put a large emphasis on people’s status updates and that appears to be their focal point now.

In a world where people are constantly looking for something new, quicker, and more exciting, it will be interesting to see how Twitter does in the upcoming months. Celebrities are even using Twitter as a means to communicate with their fans and with other celebrities; all of which is accessible to anyone who chooses to “follow” that individual. Part of the excitement of celebrities used to be wondering what their lives were like off screen or out of the spotlight. Thanks to Twitter there is no longer a need to wonder because we can now “tweet” back and forth with them. Twitter also offers a chance for people to get discovered. For example, I could go onto a music company’s Twitter site and send them a link to my friend’s band, which would take them one minute to listen to at which point they can directly respond to me. To say the least, twitter has opened up many doors and thanks to technology, has once again made life easier.

E.O'Neil