What is Twitter?
No, I’m not here to talk about the immensely successful IPO that they did earlier this month. But as a user, what is Twitter?
According to my Creative Writing for New Media class, here are the four basic things people tweet about:
What do I think Twitter is for personal users? Basically, it’s like a test to see how smart you can sound in 140 characters or less. It’s a lot harder than you would think. Which is why my tweets usually go something like this:
I guess it depends on who your target audience is. For me, it’s a random place for me to say something that I don’t actually expect anyone to read. I don’t have a lot of followers, so I don’t really have to keep a particular audience in mind. I use it to jot down either spasms of enlightenment or thoughts that I feel I must share on public– but not so public that it is on Facebook where people actually know me.
But if you have really good one-liners in real life, it sounds like you’d make a great Tweeter.
At the same time, I sometimes forget the importance of what those 140 characters can do– and just how public social media can get. Here’s a list of people who got fired over what they tweeted. http://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-fired-2011-5
Of course, aside from personal accounts, there are plenty of good ones out there. You guys ever read @RealCarrotFacts‘ tweets? This account never ceases to make me laugh!
Elliott Holt also did an interesting story through a series of tweets (from different fake accounts), and they can be read here in its compiled form on Storify. It’s like a murder mysteries game.
So how will/do you make your 140 characters mean something?
– Karen
Karen K. Lee 
Thing I am a bit nervous about tweeting – how do you know people actually read your tweets? I always saw it as Facebook with no pictures and short sentences.
I think that’s the beauty of it. It’s such a different channel. I mean, I write there not having to worry about what my uncle/cousins will think, because they don’t have twitter/don’t follow me!
I’m pretty much screwed. People will find out how dumb I am soon enough as I just got a twitter to accommodate my new website
HA! Read your fb status on how you’re already suspended. XD
Preemptive strike by Twitter. Before the stupidity occurs. Gg
HA you should buy a bunch of shares in their company and strike back 😛
I don’t think I will ever regularly use Twitter. I tried but I just don’t have anything interesting to tweet. It seems more useful for celebrities, businesses or anyone else who needs to promote.
Amazing and Thank you for writing which is quite good and best wishes always, and greetings. Kindness blossoms in your heart
That twitter fiction story looks pretty interesting.. Heading over to read it now..