Follow me?

In the world of Tumblr and Facebook, where does Twitter stand and what exactly does it mean to have a Twitter account?  Everyday when I log onto Facebook I come across statuses that say “Follow me (insert name here)!”  But in a time when privacy is already in question, what does it mean to have quote un-quote followers?  Twitter is defined as a social networking and microblogging service that allows you to answer the universal question that many social networks are working to address, “what are you doing?”  It answers this question through short text messages called Tweets.  The short format of the tweet is a defining characteristic of the service, allowing informal collaboration and quick information sharing that provides relief from rising email and IM fatigue. Twittering is also a less gated method of communication: you can share information with people that you wouldn't normally exchange email or IM messages with, opening up your circle of contacts to an ever-growing community of like-minded people, but is this a good idea?

When I asked my friends about what they thought of Twitter, they all replied, “Oh I have one, are you following me?” or “It’s awesome, you should get an account!”  As I am sitting here typing this, my friend across from me is making an account and just asked what her name should be.  It’s the first thing people see and it is what they will remember you by.  Of all of the people that I have talked to about Twitter and its use, the most informative and interesting was my friend who is a computer engineer.  He said he was one of the first three thousand Twitter users and has been in love with it since the beginning.  He claims to only follow those who have good things to say and only lets certain individuals follow him.  One example that he gave was that it could be used to get in touch with athletes or artists, but is this safe for them?  Doesn’t putting their location and who they are with putting them in danger?  He simply said, “probably.”

Other than personal use, twitter is used for businesses.  It is a great way to keep in touch with friends and quickly broadcast information, but for businesses it is a fast way to put out your company’s latest news and blog posts, interact with customers as well as enable easy internal collaboration within the company.

I personally do not have a Twitter account and find myself wondering what is the point of it often, but after asking around and doing somer research, it is obvious that Twitter is quickly made its way up to the top of the social networking charts right behind Facebook and Tumblr.  It is the quickest way to send information because it is in the form of a text message and many people have joined the Twitter bandwagon since its launch in 2006.  It is estimated that there are some 200 million users who generate 65 million tweets a day and handle over 800,000 search queries per day.

So in the world of Tumblr and Facebook how does Twitter stack up?  I’d say its right up there and is making its way to the top.  It is by far one of the easiest social networking applications to use and keeps everyone informed, up to date on the latest gossip, and is a great way for everyone’s voice and opinion to be heard.  Time magazine said that Twitter is “remarkably simple” to use and revolves completely around its followers.  Although it has been said that much of twitter is “pointless babble” there are more positive reasons to get a Twitter account and am even considering getting one myself...