Twitter , for all of its triumphs and travails , has definitely cement its place in this years of endless net connectivity and smartphones . Users compile more than 140 million Tweets per solar day , or more than 1 billion Tweets per week [ source : Twitter ] . That is some extreme Twitter use .
If you ’ve somehow miss the blitz of Twitter - related media in the past few years , read our story onHow Twitter Works . In short , Twitter is a bare communications service . You put up a schoolbook message of up to 140 character , or perhaps an double or connectedness , if you choose . Anyone who pledge to your Twitter provender will now see your update . That ’s it , really . Twitter just serve that most crucial of life ’s questions – what are you doing ?
Critics , both retiring and current , deride Twitter as digital glitter . They see it as yet another way for narcissists to brand endlessly about the minutiae of their lives for everyone to see . Do jillion of people really need update on the iPhone case that Ashton Kutcher just purchased ? And do you honestly care that your cousin ate liver for lunch ?
Banality aside , others see Twitter as ridiculously redundant in an age ofFacebook , e - mail and blogging . They betoken out that although drug user created nearly 600 million invoice , roughly one-half of them have never created a Tweet or are simply static [ origin : ZDnet ] . Twitter representatives say there are around 140 million active users .
Yet somehow , in some quarters , Twitter has still managed not only to go but also to boom . In doing so , it ’s Tweeted its manner to Internet renown and resplendence . Along the way , this stripped - down micro - blogging divine service overhauled the way a caboodle of people think about the WWW . In a sensation , Twitter has revolutionized online communications .
Keep reading to come up out how – turns out , all of those vacuous , 140 - type - subject matter stand for a passel more than you might think .
The World, Right Now
E - mailmade old - fashioned snail mail seem extremely torpid . Text messagingmade einsteinium - post palpate long - pursy . Twitter ? It made Internet communicating faster than ever before .
The overall effect is similar to an one-time - schooltime message forum , with threaded conversations that are well-situated to keep an eye on . Unlike those forum of past , these conversations take shoes in real time . More than that , the conciseness of Tweets makes them more colloquial . You partake your ideas with brief phrases or else of wordy response .
Twitter is utile for more than form a roller - skating junket . Its speed and simplicity are well - suit for disseminating break away news or sharing details on real - prison term outcome . Whether a tornado is tolerate down on a small townspeople or a eminent - speed police chase is happen in a major metropolis , users often Tweet about it . The result is a intimately instantaneous hive mind of sorts , in which we do n’t have to await for eventide TV news to stay up - to - day of the month on reality case . Now they stretch in existent sentence , on Twitter .
Twitter has also played at least some role in expanse of political unrest . From Iran and Egypt to the United States , digitally savvy protesters deploy Twitter as a pecker of mellow - speed communicating , either to organise followers or to update them on critical event .
When U.S. military operatives kill Osama bin Laden on May 1 , 2011 , Twitter blow up with the news prior to any sorting of television annunciation . The avalanche of Tweets began when Sohaib Athar , a computer programmer in Abbottabad , Pakistan , Tweeted about whirlybird and chaos near bin Laden ’s compound , in essence supply a distant play - by - bid of the foray . With that news , Twitter blast up to more than 5,000 Tweets per second . That record withstood other major events like the Super Bowl and Britain ’s royal wedding .
Twitter is Just a Tool
In an long time where social medium Web site overwhelm users with bell shape and whistling , Twitter ’s simplicity is enticing . It does n’t attempt to be all things social to all hoi polloi . Instead , it ’s just a basicInternettool that happens to work on very well for its mean purposes . And it ’s how the great unwashed have learned to leverage this malleable tool that make it so fascinating .
One example is the overload of useable third - party Twitter apps . There are thousands of apps , all created for the determination of urinate Twitter more convenient and more herculean . TweetDeck pile up tweet on all of the topics you ’re following in an gentle - to - read formatting . TweetCaster supply advanced search options , merriment photo filters and obstruct features that raise your Twitter experience in many fashion . And these are just for starters .
away from discrete apps , users have affected Twitter ’s basic functionality . It was users who believe the idea of using the @ symbolic representation when replying to specific people . For instance , if Lady Gaga loves one gossip by a fan , she can call out that person by post a Tweet that includes the devotee ’s user name , preceded by the @ symbolic representation . In doing so , Twitter becomes less about broadcasting and more about conversation .
Hashtag sorting– which was n’t in the beginning stand for by Twitter ’s developers – is another substance abuser - driven institution . When you mail a Tweet , you’re able to let in a hashtag , follow by a label of sorting , which gives the Tweet circumstance . For example , " The atmospheric condition is unadulterated again today ! # sunny # california " .
Hashtags make Twitter more searchable . Whether of import or inane , you may easily find relevant Tweets by using hashtags . Want entropy on the Arab Spring ? Just look for for hashtags such as # egypt or # protest to sort Twitter ’s glut of information .
User interactivity really does shape Twitter . It ’s a life , breathing digital organism for message and searching . Keep reading to discover the other factors that make Twitter so relevant to today ’s Internet .
Speed Demon Tech
focal ratio is one ofTwitter ’s defining traits . Unlike traditionalsearch engines , which may take days or month to find and catalogue new information , Twitter ’s lookup feature works in real clock time . When you hear about a report or a moving-picture show die viral on the Internet , Twitter is one of the main railway locomotive of that proliferation .
Companies realize this . When someone praises ( or applesauce ) its products or services on Twitter , that corporation instantly knows it . In the event of negative feedback , bright spokesperson quick call the problem and make a positive belief in front of a very large consultation .
Of naturally , the process work in reverse , too . If your troupe has anger a lot of hoi polloi , just one raw , frustrated Tweet can snowball into a million more , as exasperate customers type their first - person accounts for all the world to see . Everyone can influence the conversation now , immediately and without censorship or moderation , for in effect or for speculative .
It ’s not just companies that benefit or suffer at the small blue wings of Twitter . The same goes for politician , celebrity , technology experts , fashion taste shaper and just about anyone who wants to partake ideas with the world . As their follower chime in with their own intellection and feeling , Twitter thread become a ceaseless , searchable conversation on every conceivable matter .
Of course , the corny and the mundane will likely always make up the mass of Tweets , but the same goes for most of human conversation . It ’s the conversations we share and get really excited ( or pitiful ) about that bubble to the open of our collective awareness – and Twitter is there to document and spread all of it .
Whether Twitter continues to spring up in popularity persist to be seen . But for now , no other communication service work the same sort of magic as Twitter . So Tweet out to your meat ’s content , because in a way , the whole world is listen .
I live in a family of Twitter converts . Yet even amidst this affinity for Tweeting , I ’m still not wholly sold on Twitter ’s relevance in my own sprightliness . That ’s right-hand – in spite ( or perhaps because ) of being douse every mean solar day in social media of every flavor , I ’m one of the many Twitter sceptic out there . That ’s chiefly because I ’ve already adopted text , east - mails and Facebook as my primary mannikin of cyberspace communication . Still , I do utilize Twitter on a day-after-day cornerstone for business purposes , and lento , but sure enough , it ’s worming itself into my work flow . Perhaps someday very before long I ’ll join the rest of my family as chirrup - adoring Tweeters .
