Written by Twitter Whore on Monday June 22nd, 2009 in Essays
With all the articles floating around the interwebs about Twitter recently, I figure one more could not hurt. Only, this one will be slightly different - it is not from the views of the news analysts or the journalists who simply peruse the idea of Twitter given the current Iran stuff going on, but from an avid Twitter user, an average good-for-nothing internet addict with those boring, mundane "tweets," a Twitter whore.
Twitter is not quite as complicated or feature-full as Facebook, and at first it does not seem quite as useful, but it excels in it's simplicity. Twitter is not amazing, and it is not changing the world, but it is changing the Internet. For the last few years, the buzzword "Web 2.0" has been leading the internet towards complex intricacies, and it is a "breath of fresh air" to see that trend receding away with Twitter. For those still unfamiliar with what I am talking about I will quickly bring you up to speed: Twitter is a "microblogging" site, which sounds somewhat complicated but is not at all. You simply post little tidbits about what you're doing, each limited to 140 characters (very short). These tidbits of everyday life propagate outwards into the internet, open to the Twitter search, the Twitterverse-wide Twitter Feed, and your "followers" (which I find a somewhat ominous and an odd term for "friend"). You can, of course, set your Tweets to private. So you can also choose to "follow" people and all their tweets show up on your homepage in an RSS feed fashion.
What makes Twitter special is it's API. It is easily implemented in literally everything. You do not have to go to twitter.com. You can tweet from your phone, your iPod, your iPhone, your Crackberry, it can be embedded in your browser, from a third-party website, heck soon you can probably tweet from brainpower alone!
It's very simple. It is simplicity defined. But in this utter simplicity, it actually has a wide variety of functions which I find fascinating. It (1) allows for celebrity-stalking outdating tabloids, (2) friend stalking in a manner exceeding Facebook (well in certain areas), (3) bringing the world a little closer.
Contention 1: Allows for celebrity-stalking, outdating tabloids
Fact: celebrities tweet. And they actually tweet, it's not the publicists. They admit to their avid tweeting in interviews, they hold up their phones to the camera, pearly white smiles, and tweet. This does wonders for us lowly people who admire celebrities. You can easily follow their Twitter feeds (they are usually not private except for that Emma Watson), and in these feeds you discover the personalities of your subject of admiration. You learn basically every aspect of their life, not just the semi-scandalous trash that litter the tabloids and for some unknown reason morning breakfast news. And through these feeds you find out something very fascinating: most of them are actually human. They watch movies, listen to music, hang out with friends, get drunk just like the rest of us. And we all have to admit, being able to relate to a celebrity makes all our days just a little bit better. Ah Twitter, saving self-esteems since 2006.
Contention 2: Allows us to friend stalk in a manner exceeding Facebook
As previously discussed in this website, Facebooks are pretty well-edited and pruned to display our best qualities. They are this public advertisements. Twitter is much more grounded, much more truthful. Tweets are generally the boring mundane stuff like what we're doing at the time or what we think of some movie, and with only 140 characters, there is not much room to lie. Well, yeah you can lie but it's hard to make your life sound more exciting than it actually is on Twitter. In addition the simplicity of Twitter and it's implementation across everywhere makes it incredibly easy to keep friends in the loop. A simple tweet by TwitterWhore: "I'm hanggliding" and suddenly all of TwitterWhore's friends will see the message and he will not have to reiterate the same story a dozen time and get yelled if he forgets somebody. Because this way the facts are out there, and it is their fault for not paying attention to my Twitter if they don't catch it.
Contention 3: Brings the world a little closer
This one is evident from all the Iran stuff going on. Twitter's simple design and incredibly simple concept allows information to spread like wildfire. Come across a cool link? Simple tweet it and it spreads to most of your friends. Getting unjustly mowed down by machineguns in the hands of some government goons? Well write a tweet and the media (which I'm sure has bots flying through the Twittersphere) will catch wind of it and your death will surely not be in vain. Organizing a mass protest because someone you believe is an asshole became president in an unjust manner? Tweet. What's great, and well kind of sucks for Amademajad, is that Twitter is nearly impossible to shut down because of how easily implemented it is. If twitter.com is blocked you can tweet from hundreds of tweeting sites (twickly.com for example) or send a text or there's even a service to call in and they will tweet the message (calltweet). Anyhow all this brings the world just a little closer.
If all this doesn't convince you of the greatness of Twitter, perusing tweets (celebrity and Iran-related) and tweeting into a void is a great way to waste time at work
-A Twitter Whore
(This is not as well-written as my last Facebook Whore article, and you must excuse me, I am rushed and do not feel I have the time to edit)
Twitter is not quite as complicated or feature-full as Facebook, and at first it does not seem quite as useful, but it excels in it's simplicity. Twitter is not amazing, and it is not changing the world, but it is changing the Internet. For the last few years, the buzzword "Web 2.0" has been leading the internet towards complex intricacies, and it is a "breath of fresh air" to see that trend receding away with Twitter. For those still unfamiliar with what I am talking about I will quickly bring you up to speed: Twitter is a "microblogging" site, which sounds somewhat complicated but is not at all. You simply post little tidbits about what you're doing, each limited to 140 characters (very short). These tidbits of everyday life propagate outwards into the internet, open to the Twitter search, the Twitterverse-wide Twitter Feed, and your "followers" (which I find a somewhat ominous and an odd term for "friend"). You can, of course, set your Tweets to private. So you can also choose to "follow" people and all their tweets show up on your homepage in an RSS feed fashion.
What makes Twitter special is it's API. It is easily implemented in literally everything. You do not have to go to twitter.com. You can tweet from your phone, your iPod, your iPhone, your Crackberry, it can be embedded in your browser, from a third-party website, heck soon you can probably tweet from brainpower alone!
It's very simple. It is simplicity defined. But in this utter simplicity, it actually has a wide variety of functions which I find fascinating. It (1) allows for celebrity-stalking outdating tabloids, (2) friend stalking in a manner exceeding Facebook (well in certain areas), (3) bringing the world a little closer.
Contention 1: Allows for celebrity-stalking, outdating tabloids
Fact: celebrities tweet. And they actually tweet, it's not the publicists. They admit to their avid tweeting in interviews, they hold up their phones to the camera, pearly white smiles, and tweet. This does wonders for us lowly people who admire celebrities. You can easily follow their Twitter feeds (they are usually not private except for that Emma Watson), and in these feeds you discover the personalities of your subject of admiration. You learn basically every aspect of their life, not just the semi-scandalous trash that litter the tabloids and for some unknown reason morning breakfast news. And through these feeds you find out something very fascinating: most of them are actually human. They watch movies, listen to music, hang out with friends, get drunk just like the rest of us. And we all have to admit, being able to relate to a celebrity makes all our days just a little bit better. Ah Twitter, saving self-esteems since 2006.
Contention 2: Allows us to friend stalk in a manner exceeding Facebook
As previously discussed in this website, Facebooks are pretty well-edited and pruned to display our best qualities. They are this public advertisements. Twitter is much more grounded, much more truthful. Tweets are generally the boring mundane stuff like what we're doing at the time or what we think of some movie, and with only 140 characters, there is not much room to lie. Well, yeah you can lie but it's hard to make your life sound more exciting than it actually is on Twitter. In addition the simplicity of Twitter and it's implementation across everywhere makes it incredibly easy to keep friends in the loop. A simple tweet by TwitterWhore: "I'm hanggliding" and suddenly all of TwitterWhore's friends will see the message and he will not have to reiterate the same story a dozen time and get yelled if he forgets somebody. Because this way the facts are out there, and it is their fault for not paying attention to my Twitter if they don't catch it.
Contention 3: Brings the world a little closer
This one is evident from all the Iran stuff going on. Twitter's simple design and incredibly simple concept allows information to spread like wildfire. Come across a cool link? Simple tweet it and it spreads to most of your friends. Getting unjustly mowed down by machineguns in the hands of some government goons? Well write a tweet and the media (which I'm sure has bots flying through the Twittersphere) will catch wind of it and your death will surely not be in vain. Organizing a mass protest because someone you believe is an asshole became president in an unjust manner? Tweet. What's great, and well kind of sucks for Amademajad, is that Twitter is nearly impossible to shut down because of how easily implemented it is. If twitter.com is blocked you can tweet from hundreds of tweeting sites (twickly.com for example) or send a text or there's even a service to call in and they will tweet the message (calltweet). Anyhow all this brings the world just a little closer.
If all this doesn't convince you of the greatness of Twitter, perusing tweets (celebrity and Iran-related) and tweeting into a void is a great way to waste time at work
-A Twitter Whore
(This is not as well-written as my last Facebook Whore article, and you must excuse me, I am rushed and do not feel I have the time to edit)