Twitter

Twitter

Twitter is a social networking platform that allows users to send "tweets" as well as read other peoples "tweets". A "tweet" is a message that is restricted to 140 characters in length.  

Part of my Twitter Feed

Twitter for the most part does not seem to be in the market to replace existing social media platforms but rather to add another dimension to how people communicate. It was originally designed as an internet version of SMS but it became much more than that. I believe that Twitter is a great way to share important news quickly to lots of people as well as to send updates, it's fast, easy, and it's instant. Of course the ability to send information instantly can lead to the spreading of misinformation  and not only does misinformation spread online but it spreads quickly, there is even a website dedicated to tracking the trustworthiness of Twitter stories (http://twittertrails.com). An example of misinformation that was spread in the last 6 months on Twitter was the issue surrounding information about the Ebola outbreak, there were many tweets stating that Ebola could be passed on through air, food, and water or that it was running rampant (http://time.com/3479254/ebola-social-media/). Situations like this can cause mass panic and can lead to serious issues outside of the Internet. Twitter is very different from blogging, first and foremost would be its imposed character limit, I'm quite sure a blog would be difficult to use if you were restricted to so few words. Secondly Twitter is much more of a social networking site rather than a creative outlet or place for detailed information as most blogs are. I believe that having a blog and a Twitter account could be quite useful as one could easily share blog posts on Twitter, get ideas and feedback from their followers and promote themselves and their blog in an easy 140 characters or less.