I really enjoyed reading Steven Johnson’s article, “How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live” because I had a very similar perspective about Twitter when it first appeared in the world of Social Networking. Johnson says that his first impression of Twitter was that it was inefficient and a waste of time. He goes on to say that a network that only limits you to 140 characters is pointless and not very interesting. He furthers his comments by mocking Twitter and saying that the next thing technology will come up with is a newsfeed that describes your mood in one character. I found this all very ironic because these were comments I made until about a year ago.

When Twitter made it’s first appearance my response was, “Oh no…not another Facebook”. However, I am to blame because I tend to be a little negative towards some social networking sites. When Facebook first came out I swore to myself that I would never get account. Now, I can easily say that I need a Facebook intervention because it consumes most of my time. Keeping this in mind and knowing how judgmental I was of Facebook, this didn’t change my mind about Twitter. For me all it was were irrelevant status updates.. who cares? 140 characters of my life that I will never get back.. don’t have time. And just another social network that takes over your life. Boy was I wrong!

I have had Twitter for about a year now and I can say, without any hesitation, that Twitter triumphs Facebook in my books. Every negative assumption I had towards Twitter was extremely FALSE. First of all, status updates from the friends, celebrities, news stations, sports networks etc. that I follow are very entertaining, informative and makes the world we live in today way more efficient. I am able to read things on Twitter that are going on globally and click on links for more information to get the whole story. I can read about Lil Wayne’s trips to the skate parks in between concerts and watch the videos he posts, and I am able to connect with my friends back in Canada in a fun and socially efficient way.

Due to my previous extreme hate to now utmost love for Twitter, I have been promoting it to anyone who claims it is a waste of time and simply pointless. Johnson makes this apparent at the bottom of his article when he talks about a particular #hashtag that was used during a conference that generated conversation. These individuals at the conference would incorporate that hashtag in their tweet and would find their tweet among many others that also used that hashtag. Johnson says, that at the end of that day hundreds of tweets were published and can still be viewed today if the proper hashtag was searched. This excites me because it is another way for teenagers, adults, business professionals, even teachers, using our #engl303 class for example to create a healthy environment that encourages conversation. I believe that this will benefit many companies that use twitter not only to promote their products but to bring the people in society together and create a community. Johnson wraps up the article by saying the Twitter conversation at the conference changed the rules of engagement and ultimately added a second layer of discussion which included and welcomed a wider and broader audience.

I believe that Twitter has substantially influenced and benefited many individuals in the world positvely. I am pro-twitter and encourage everyone to have some social networking fun at it’s finest! #GoTwitter!

I will leave you with Johnson’s last statement of his article that I extremely like and believe!:
“Yes, it was built entirely out of 140-character messages, but the sum total of those tweets added up to something truly substantive, like a suspension bridge made of pebbles.”   -Steven Johnson

Caroline Szwed