In the spirit of the World Wide Web’s 20th birthday last Friday, I’d like to celebrate my favorite thing on the Web right now: Twitter.
On the surface, it is deceptively simple. It’s a social network and a micro-blogging tool in which you exchange 140-character updates with your “followers.” These blurbs are publicly visible by default, but can be restricted to just your friends.
Critics deride Twitter as a fad and label users as bandwagon followers, but what they fail to note is the value in its real-time search feature and extensive uses. When my Internet was deathly slow, I went on Twitter and found that Time Warner’s Los Angeles servers were down due to hacker attacks. Not even Google can match those instantaneous results yet.
The more obvious comparison is with Facebook’s status updates. With Facebook’s new design and concept curiously similar to Twitter, why should you bother with Twitter?
Despite Facebook’s new emphasis on conversation, it is still essentially a closed network, while Twitter is the opposite. What you share on Facebook is restricted only to your friends, while Twitter updates are displayed on a live public time line.
Twitter’s search feature makes use of this real-time information and enables a two-way exchange creating shared experiences of big events, such as President Barack Obama’s inauguration. It’s like a big couch for the world to watch TV on.
If the Internet is the “Global Village,” then Twitter is its coffee shop. It is an open forum that encourages the exchange of news and ideas, functioning as another channel of communication.
“On Twitter, it’s strictly about the content you put out. The emphasis is more on content and subject matter,” said Patricia Wayne, a second-year comparative literature student. “It’s about conversation now. Fast conversation.”
Twitter ensures the availability of fact and opinion. It’s another tool to broaden your network, your perspective and your ideas. It’s with these that you are able to inspire and spread your knowledge. And because Twitter is still evolving, it caters to a wide range of interests.
If you’re a celebrity fanatic, you’ll find celebrities such as Jimmy Fallon, Snoop Dogg, and Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore active on Twitter. If celebrities are willing to divulge their thoughts, daily foibles, complete with pictures, paparazzi are basically rendered obsolete.
Two guys met Shaquille O’Neal through his Twitter. After receiving a Tweet from Shaq saying he was at a diner in Phoenix, the guys, skeptical, drove to the restaurant.
Sensing kindred spirits around, Shaq sent out a Tweet inviting anyone else in the diner to say hi. The guys did. Following the meet-up, Shaq Tweeted, “To all twitterers, … we r from twitteronia, we connect.” Thanks to Twitter, fans and a famous athlete were able to connect in the real world.
If you’re a politico, there are many members of Congress who are Twittering. Their Tweets provide a candid look at our elected representatives, allowing an unprecedented level of exchange between politicians and their constituents.
“The best part is being able to directly talk to Missourians about my day without reporters editing!” Sen. Claire McCaskill said in a Tweet.
If you’re a news junkie, you probably enjoy the constant flow of information and can appreciate the speed at which it’s delivered. David Schlesinger, the editor-in-chief of Reuters, recognizes the potential of Twitter.
In a Silicon Alley Insider post, Schlesinger wrote, “I’m using Twitter to live Tweet things that interest me and to give a more personal take on what’s going on. I think it’s important to try it. … I took great pleasure in beating the wire!”
If you’re an L.A. local, you may want to follow Kogi BBQ, a Korean barbecue taco truck that constantly Tweets its location and attracts block-long lines of customers. Earlier this week when Lebron James was on campus working out at the Wooden Center, someone spotted him and sent out a Tweet.
In the same way that coffee shops serve as a center of social interaction, Twitter is doing the same ““ it provides users a place to talk, read, entertain or muse to pass the time.
If you have a Twitter, follow Millie at twitter.com/millie, or e-mail Millie at mtran@media.ucla.edu.