I’ve never been too big on social networking. Sure, I like Facebook, but other than that I’m pretty plain when it comes to profiling myself on the Internet. Then I took Digital Journalism.
The first day of class my professor began talking about Twitter. He encouraged us to get accounts. I had heard of it, but honestly didn’t really care. It sounded like something I wouldn’t be too interested in. I didn’t plan on making a profile.
Then, one day, a friend and I decided to give it a go. Why not, right? It would make our professor happy at least.
That was about three weeks ago. Today I can honestly say I am obsessed with Twitter. Still have no idea what I’m talking about? Twitter is basically a Web site that you can put updates (like on your Facebook) up for people to see. There are no photo albums, groups or even friends. Twitter is basically a “this is what is going on with me” site.
This doesn’t sound too cool. I didn’t think so either. But when you join Twitter and make a profile, you can start “tweeting” or posting (I know, it sounds ridiculous). You can “tweet” up to 140 words at a time– just enough space to tell people what you are doing, how you are thinking, or in my case, where users can go to find news stories you think everyone should read.
The cool thing about Twitter is the fact that news is spread so quickly. When the airplane crashed into the Hudson River not too long ago it was a person twittering from his phone who broke the story. He used the “twitpic” application to post photos of the fallen aircraft. By just being on a ferry, having a cell phone and a twitter account, some Average Joe beat every news station to the story. He’s famous in the Twitter-world now.
During the Acadamy Awards Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore posted “twit pics” for fans to see. How is that not cool?
Like I said, in Twitter, there are no friends. Instead, there are followers. Sounds creepy, but it really isn’t. If you follow someone you can see all of their updates, what time they “tweet” and even respond to their threads.
Twitter is a great way of keeping up-to-date without having to put in a lot of effort. If you’re a news junkie like me, you’ll love it. Something is always happening somewhere, and there is always a person who wants to let you know. That’s the beauty of Twitter. Stay in the know. Tweet!
