When I first heard about Twitter I figured it was another tool that those inclined to follow pop culture would enjoy and the rest of us would poke fun at. At the time Paris Hilton was still active in the news and I remember radio personalities having a great time at her expense by reading through her Tweets. With this being one of my first impressions of this social networking site it is no wonder I have been hesitant to join in the Tweeting. With encouragement from my online masters course, I have been doing more thinking of regarding the benefits of Twitter. As mentioned, my school uses Twitter to communicate about daily events both on and off campus. I feel this is a wonderful marketing tool for the school and also a fun way to keep parents involved in our school life. Although I have not tweeted at school yet, I could see myself commenting on life in my classroom.
On a personal note I still don’t see the value in Twitter. Facebook seems to me to be a more appropriate means of communicating with friends about your personal life. I wonder if people post their feelings simultaneously on Facebook and Twitter. To my way of thinking, this is a bit much… maybe even a bit vain. Do people really care what you are doing right now? I know this is a very passé argument that I raise here. Twitter has been criticized for this since its conception. As mentioned in the New York Times article entitled Twitter, it was first seen that Twitter was just the latest in “time wasting devices”. It is not hard to understand why people criticized the site in the beginning, as the simple question asked to Tweeters is “What are you doing” and in 140 characters or less, you are asked to answer.
In my impression, Twitter has made a considerable maturation into a much more significant Web 2.0 tool. No longer is it simply used for updating your friends on what you are doing, it is now used by significant role models in the community for communication, marketing for businesses, celebrities and politicians. As this tool is convenient and trendy, it would be a significant missed opportunity for many people.
More significantly, Twitter has been used to make significant change in both Iran and Moldova. The following information comes from a New York Times article, and should not be paraphrased:
Organizing Tool
In 2009, people in Iran and Moldova created their own searchable tags on Twitter to organize protests against their governments and share information with each other and the world. In April, Moldovans used the network to rally more than 10,000 young people against their country's Communist leadership. And in June, Iranian opposition supporters angry over presidential election results used Twitter and other forms of new media to share news on rallies, police crackdowns on protesters, and analysis.
With the authorities blocking text-messaging on cellphones, Twitter has become a handy alternative for information-hungry Iranians. While Iran has also tried to block Twitter posts, Iranians are skilled at using proxy sites or other methods to circumvent the official barriers.
In a notable moment during the Iranian protests, State Department official e-mailed Twitter to request a delay in scheduled maintenance of its global network, which would have cut off service while Iranians were using Twitter to swap information and inform the outside world about the mushrooming protests around Tehran.
Twitter complied with the request and briefly postponed its upgrade. The episode demonstrated the extent to which the Obama administration views social networking as a new diplomatic tool. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton talks regularly about the power of e-diplomacy, particularly in places where the mass media are repressed.” New York Times
Having lived in the Middle East myself, I understand just how much control the government can have on your communications with others. It is significant that the youth of countries are able to use these tools to express themselves.
Twitter has become a dynamic web 2.0 tool that can be used for vast purposes. For my personal use, Twitter might simply be a means of communicating interesting information with others and updating parents about the happenings in my classroom. It would shock me if I ever Tweeted “what I am doing”, but as my reading has proved to me, Twitter can be so much more than that if you let it be.
The New York Times. Friday October 28, 2011. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/twitter/index.html?offset=0&s=newest
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