Twitter is not pointless
Twitter is not pointless. I’ve said it, I’ve argued for and against it, and now I’d like to take a side. Here’s why; I recognize the over-saturation of social media applications in the online environment, and the surmounting concern that we’re facing another dotcom bust. While that argument is one for another time and place, I do believe that there are certain applications that have the ability to change societal communications, and twitter is currently at the top of my list. This is not news. Those “in the know” with twitter are, for the most part, already familiar with its power and its addictive nature. While critics will argue that we shouldn’t care about the day-to-day, minute-by-minute updates from a stranger on the other side of the continent (or next door for that matter), I believe that not only do we care, but we also should. We are interested. Like other successful social media sites, the service is only as effective as its users; twitter will only grow and continue to remain popular so long as there are users around to tweet. But it’s the mix of casual insignificant tweets (read: I’m cooking up steak and corn on the cob tonight) with powerful timely events (read: Watching the flood waters rise higher as the rain falls harder) make this tool easy to consume, easy to participate, and highly entertaining.
I’ve heard many who go on, and on, about twitter as a complete waste of electronic space. While some of those arguments have merit, I’ll argue against them for the purpose of getting my “I <3 twitter” point across!
Argument: This technology has been around for a long time – twitter is nothing new. It’s no different than an RSS feed, email list, or news website
Twitter has integrated with mobile devices allowing input and output to happen outside of a browser or a computer. The number of clicks to obtain the information is very small – in fact, if you install an open-source third-party application such as twitteriffic or twitterberry, you barely need to click at all. It may be that the idea of quick, short text-based updates has been around since the internet was simply message boards, but in my experience with popular technologies, twitter is different. Twitter is about connecting – it’s a social media tool intended to build relationships and foster communication. RSS feeds are not intended to start any real conversation – RSS feeds is a one-way communication feed. At the bare minimum, all you need a browser and enough knowledge to fill out the web forms for creating an account. If you’d like to get more advanced, the open-source nature of the service allows you to develop your own twitter-reader, which you could install on your mobile device if you were so inclined. You can add pictures via services like TwitPic and URL’s using TinyURL, which make it more interesting than an email inbox or an RSS reader. And although minor, each tweet is accompanied by an avatar from the author, which makes the post more personal.