#Twitter

Twitter: what is it?:

     Twitter is an online news and social networking site where users post and read short 140 character messages called "tweets". Registered users can post and read tweets, but those who are unregistered can only read them if users don’t have their settings set on private. Users access Twitter through the website interface, SMS or mobile app. Twitter got their start in 2006 and really took hold by 2012-2013. Right now, Twitter is one of the top used apps and social media platforms. The statistics of Twitter stated off http://www.statisticbrain.com/twitter-statistics/ are:

·         Total number of registered Twitter users: 695,750,000

·         Total number of active Twitter users: 342,000,000

·         Number of new Twitter users signing up everyday: 135,000

·         Average number of tweets per day: 58 million

·         Number of Twitter search engine queries every day: 2.1 billion

·         Percent of Twitter users who use their phone to tweet: 43 %

·         Percent of tweets that come from third party applicants: 60%

·         Number of active Twitter users every month: 115 million

·         Percent of Twitters who don’t tweet but watch other people tweet: 40%

·         Number of days it takes for 1 billion tweets: 5 days

·         Number of tweets that happen every second: 9,100

     Twitter has its pros, for example: its easy to use. It takes only a minute to tweet and get your thoughts and ideas out into the twitter universe; if a business is using it, it’s a great way to get their brand recognition; It also allows you better access to looking into what celebrities and other big name people are doing. But twitter also has its cons as well, for instance the simple lack of space in tweets. You can only put 140 characters into each message, and when directing a message towards someone, you can only direct it to one person at a time. If you don’t know the analytics, a lot of tweets that you post can get buried in seconds and posts are not private so anyone can comment and start a riot.

#Twitter and #I:

     I’ve seen Twitter used by many of my peers throughout the years. It never really caught on with me while I was in junior high or in high school like it did with most of my class mates. While I was in school, I was mostly only seeing it used by the school to give status updates for things like snow days, PD days, etc. While my friends used it to pretty well to follow trends, celebrities, and people of interest (which I could already do with my Facebook and Instagram). When they actually posted things, it would more than likely just be their status updates they used to be doing on Facebook. When it first started up before it became mostly sharing stories/pictures site, the stuff people were posting was just stuff I didn’t care for or want to see or read about for example, “gone drinking wtb’s going to be a night”, “shopping with the fam this is so boring hml” and sometimes it can be kind of comical such as “wonder how many people I called last night between the hours of 2:30-4 that seen my name an went f*** that guy”. 

     For the most part back then, I only saw Twitter as a “talk-shit website” where people literally do most of there shit talking and bullying on Twitter.  My opinion in the past of Twitter would have been that it’s a horrible platform, almost as bad as Ask.fm for being able to harass and do nothing about it or worse you actually know the person and it could escalate into a physical fight. That’s not even saying what celebrities and other significant figures have to put up with on this site. Most of the tweets towards celebrities are ruthless and absolutely uncalled for but sometimes it is sensible, but the way that the person responds to the tweet is vital.

     After actually using this app to some extent this week, I can see my self continuing to use it but not as one of my main apps, not because it’s a bad app or anything. The way I used to find it in high school is no longer the way I find it now even though the app didn’t significantly change the atmosphere so I actually find it a lot more pleasant to use. It’s just what I use my apps for currently, Twitter wouldn’t be the most interesting or convenient. I like to use Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook because I like to see the videos and long stories with archives of comments to talk to other people in and share. You can do that on twitter as well to some extent but the 140 characters is really limiting. When I do use it, I would certainly fall under the 40% that watch tweets but don’t tweet their selves as stated in the beginning.

  When Twitter gets #Rowdy:

    An example of someone who reacted to a tweet made about them badly would be Bardock Obama (Meme Twitter Page Admin) calling out and talking shit to Rapper/Musician Lupe Fiasco and him responding when he should have just left it.  Bardock called him out and it started a very long argument between the two with thousands of people tuning in also talking shit about Lupe with him still responding. Meanwhile all this publicity in this little stunt didn’t make Bardock look like a “dick” because Lupe got heated and responded to a Twitter troll. He should have left it alone because it showed his bad character and he actually lost a quite a few fans because of the stuff he was saying (this got deleted by Lupe in the following week after it happened).

     A nice few people can actually take this hate and these troll tweets and turn it around for them in a good way. A lot of famous people have gone on Jimmy Kimmel Live and done this segment called “Mean Tweets” where he gets them to read extremely mean tweets about them and record how they react to the tweets. Some people on it got offended and they retaliated back towards the tweet but others have completely turned it around and made it into a joke and showed a more loved and almost down to earth character. *Warning: Video is probably not what you would call appropriate*

Maybe it’s not that bad #Theturnaround:

     Since I’ve been out of high school and I’ve gotten into post-secondary, I’ve started to find more of a use for Twitter, whether its following some company I buy things from or have products of such as game companies to following a few friends that I haven’t seen since high school. I follow a user named @BlizzardCSS, a game company known for “World of War Craft” and a recent hit “Overwatch”, to get the latest information and news about updates, patches, how-to’s, or generally new and cool stuff they’re releasing. Clothing companies and local companies I follow also tweet updates on their twitter account so people can know what new deals they’re bringing in and new products they’re getting. I get live notifications if I want them as soon as the user posts them, keeping me up to date and involved in all the things they’re doing that I could be interested in. The hashtag system on Twitter works outstandingly well so finding any new information about a certain trend or anything really has become extremely easy. When using it as a business, this allows you to group your posts for certain groups. People will know exactly what hashtag to type to get your business page and tweets up. When the Fidget Cube started its online campaign, their use of their own hashtag really helped the product spread around the web using #Fidget Cube

     After actually using this app to some extent this week, I can see my self continuing to use it but not as one of my main apps, not because it’s a bad app or anything. The way I used to find it in high school is no longer the way I find it now even though the app didn’t significantly change the atmosphere so I actually find it a lot more pleasant to use. It’s just what I use my apps for currently, Twitter wouldn’t be the most interesting or convenient. I like to use Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook because I like to see the videos and long stories with archives of comments to talk to other people in and share. You can do that on twitter as well but I’d just rather the apps that I’m already used to. When I do use it, I would certainly fall under the 40% that watch tweets but don’t tweet their selves as stated in the beginning. So, if you want quick, up-to-date information and news about anything, then I definitely recommend Twitter for you.