The trouble with Twitter

Just another social networking tool for me to not care about

By Jacey Gibb, Opinions Editor

ears ago, right about the time
{ver Facebook was starting

to pick up speed, a friend of
mine was busy obsessing over his new
“Twitter” account. He tried explaining
to me how great this new website was,
but I was too busy verbally abusing
him over how unnecessary Twitter
seemed. “So it’s basically just a status
update? Why would someone take
the worst part about Facebook and
dedicate an entire website to it?”
Now here we are in 2012, which also
happens to be the year the world
runs out of gas or something, and
Twitter has become the second most
popular social networking website
in the world. Mere coincidence that
this coincides with the end of times?
Hmm.

your phone, whereas you require a
smartphone or a computer to check
your Twitter account. A text message
is a private, direct conversation with
one person while a tweet is out in
the public for everyone to gawk at. I
don’t know about you, but all these
upsides sure are making me want to
cancel my unlimited texting plan and
reinvigorate my Twitter account!

In 2009, a market research firm
concluded that 40 per cent of tweets
fell under the category of being
“useless babble.” | used to be a serial
status updater on Facebook, but
now I rarely bother. First of all, if it’s
something important, I’d prefer to
tell people rather than have it simply
come up in their newsfeed. But the
main reason I’ve stopped updating my
status so frequently is because most
of what I used to say doesn’t matter.

“With every day that passes, another one of my friends informs me of
their whimsical username and I’m forced to remind them that unless
they’re making their way into Mordor to destroy a ring, | won’t be
following them.’

Call me technologically archaic.
Call me stubborn. Call me whatever
you want, but I refuse to get aboard
this bandwagon. I created a Twitter
account several years ago because
I was applying for a job that
recommended having one, and I
haven't logged on since. Every now
and then I get an email informing me
that someone from my high school is
now following me, but those messages
make their way appropriately into my
junk folder.

Why the hell would I want
Twitter? So I can sit on the Internet
all day, revelling in all the followers
I’ve accumulated? I’m pretty sure no
one’s ever gotten laid because of their
Twitter stats and that’s not going to
change in the near future. What am I
missing that makes Twitter so great?

“It allows me to connect with
other people.” Yeah? So does email.
And Facebook. And text messaging
and every other social networking
website. In order to narrow our focus,
let’s just compare tweeting to texting.
The average text message allows
for 160 characters, while a tweet is
restricted to 140—that’s a whole extra
sentence for you to break up with
someone with! Texts go straight to

No one cares that “I’m in class lol”
so why bother slapping that piece of
groundbreaking news on my profile?
Since constant updates are the kind
of thing Twitter was meant for, it
encourages people to continuously
tweet irrelevant garbage that has no
real importance.

Just like status updates, a lot of
people use their Twitter account as a
self-verifier for how funny they can
be—or at least how funny they can
be if they have time to think about
it. I have friends that have hilarious
updates because they’re genuinely
funny, but the majority of people only
develop a sense of humour when
they’re behind a screen.

V'll admit that thus far, Twitter has
shown signs of resiliency. With every
day that passes, another one of my
friends informs me of their whimsical
username and I’m forced to remind
them that unless they’re making their
way into Mordor to destroy a ring,

I won't be following them. Will my
resistance to Twitter force me to retire
to a life where I’m constantly out

of the loop and socially irrelevant?
Perhaps. But at least where | live, in
the real world, there’s no character
limit or hash tags. #getalife

 

Opinions.

War ot the Word

Tweet it to beat it:

  

La

twitter

_——|

Twitter taking centre stage of social media systems

By Stephanie Trembath

ommunication has
changed dramatically
since the millennium;

the inconvenience of searching
for a phone booth has been
replaced with an overflow

of tweets and texts. In 2004,
Mark Zuckerberg successfully
launched Facebook—the largest
social networking system to
date with over 800 million users
worldwide—and in 2006, Jack
Dorsey launched a new SNS that
featured microblogging, where
users send short texts of only
140 characters.

With approximately 300
million global users, Twitter is
quickly claiming centre stage in
social media systems through

conversation. It isn’t invasive
as there isn’t as much room to
create a personal profile, and
unlike blogs, Twitter’s primary
goal is to create quick, short
bursts of information, sending it
out viral for anyone to receive.
Twitter also creates huge
opportunities in promoting
businesses, networking, and
establishing brands, which is
perfect for anyone aspiring

to find jobs in the creative
economy.

For students, such as myself,
who find themselves penny
pinching and perhaps giving
up minor comforts to afford
classes, Twitter is the perfect
way to quickly catch up on
news, sporting events, fashion
trends, world tragedies, and any

“In our fast-paced media driven economy, if you are not current with
cultural trends and news media, then you'll find yourself at a major
disadvantage compared to those who engage in social networking

systems and the viral trend of microblogging.”

small “bites” of information,
connecting users through a
streamline of conversations.
Unlike Facebook, Myspace,
blogs, and other SNS, Twitter
enables its users to engage
through a framework that
interacts much like an
expanding dinner party; the
guest list never ends.

Prior to this year, I avoided
Twitter at all costs. Because
I’m not especially tech savvy, I
stuck with Facebook despite the
increasing advertisements and
game invitations. Over the last
two years, and over countless re-
designs, my opinion of Facebook
has changed; too many add-ons,
applications, advertisements,
and format changes leave me
slightly irritated after use, and
sending a quick message has
become much too embedded
and involved.

Tweeting, on the other hand,
is simple and straightforward.
Rather than collecting “friends,”
one collects “followers,”
which is perfect for sending
out mass texts of information
and generating a collective

other facts normally featured in
news media and on television.
A few years ago when I moved
out, I gave up television to
continue enjoying nice jeans and
red wine. Thanks to Twitter, I
now don’t have to read an entire
newspaper to quickly catch up
on news worthy events.

The bottom line: you have
to Tweet it to beat it. In our fast-
paced media driven economy,
if you are not current with
cultural trends and news media,
then you'll find yourself at a
major disadvantage compared
to those who engage in social
networking systems and the
viral trend of micro-blogging.
For students, Twitter is the
perfect way to stay in touch
with news media without taking
away time from studying. For
graduates entering the economy
and seeking employment
opportunities, Twitter is a
unique tool to create your own
brand and network with other
professionals and businesses in
your employment sector.

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