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Twitter
13:00
Ravi Amruth
What is Twitter?
Launched in 2006 as FriendStalker, twitter has changed the internet, and the various types of communication and microblogging that exist. Celebrities like Stephen Fry, Pete Wentz, and Ashton Kutcher have since created a bandwagon, and where you used to hear "What's twitter!?" after you've brought it up, you now hear "YEAH, @REPLY ME!!!!"Twitter is essentially a microblogging platform. You're given 140 characters in which to say whatever you like. The site provides "what are you doing?" as a muse for your "tweets", but you really don't need to stick to that. If people like the content you post, they'll "follow" you, and your posts will appear on their homepage. And the same goes for you- if you feel like keeping up to date with someone, you click their "follow" button, and whenever they tweet, you'll know about it!
Why Tweet?
Now that twitter is being used by anyone and everyone [even broadcasting companies are reaping the rewards from this 140 character goldmine], and the term is being bandied about, it's understandable for you to think: "Why should I join twitter!?!?!?"Now, like all things in life, it's not for everyone. Some, like me, find it terribly addictive. I joined in December, and I've already tweeted 8,643 times [needless to say that it'll go up by the time I've finished typing this review]. Others, however, don't like twitter. They'll tweet 3 times, and then leave.
Now, as I said, the site asks you "What are you doing?" as a bit of a muse to tweet, but again, you don't need to adhere to this. I've had brilliant conversations with various other tweeters about music, governments, love, and other topics.
Let your mind run free! You can tweet about what you want, and if your content is good enough, you'll pick up a few followers along the way!
You even have the chance to talk to various REAL celebrities, too. I've talked to Joe Trohman [Fall Out Boy], Andy Hurley [Fall Out Boy], and Jason Manford [comedian] among others, and these are all REAL accounts. Of course, you can get the occasional faker, but Twitter has started to implement a scheme whereby real celebrities' accounts are marked.
Why Follow?
The great thing about twitter, as with all user generated content that appears nowadays, is that you can choose what you want to see. If you find someone's tweets amusing, helpful, or just generally good, you can follow them. If you find that this persons content becomes extremely bad, you can unfollow them. Meaning that you control the content you view, and you can choose the type of tweets you see- it's all in YOUR control.If you find someone's a star tweeter, you can participate in followfriday, where, every friday [as you may have guessed], people recommend great tweeters and great content that really should be followed.
Security
As with any social networking site, there needs to be an element of security involved. And, luckily, there is. Twitter has a block button, so if you're followed by spammers, scammers, or general bad eggs, you can block these people, and they can hassle you no more!The whole site operates via usernames, too. So if you're uncomfortable with people knowing your name, don't worry- people will just address you by your twitter counterpart.
Design
The design of the site is pretty simple. It's just basically a textbox, a submit button, a few internal links, and then a bar down the side that shows your statistics, and the trending topics. The site's very quick to load, and you can customise your own background to your particular taste, be it a pattern, a logo, or a picture of your dazzling smile.There have been various recent updates to the site, and it has been a little slow to load recently- but there's nothing a twitter client can't fix!
Offshoots
There have been various offshoots made to twitter to add extra entertainment. There are "twibes" that you can join, to show you're part of a particular community, there are quizzes that you play, where results are published to your twitter account, and there's even a twitter spy-game [which reminds me - if anyone asks, you haven't seen me, capiche!? ;) ]Portability
There are twitter clients for every device imaginable, so you can tweet from whenever, WHEREVER. Not only are there clients for PCs and Macs, but they exist for iPhones, Blackberries, Windows Mobile Phones, Symbian Mobile Phones, Nintendo DS, and even a client for World of Warcraft is rumoured.This means that you can send a message to the world from wherever you are, as long as you have an internet connection [be it wi-fi, gprs, or usual wired broadband]
Overall
Twitter is a very, VERY addictive website. I've made friends, had great conversations, chatted to celebrities, and even become a bit of a news statistic. I prefer it to various other social networks like facebook, myspace, and even instant messengers like MSN.Okay, the 140 character limit CAN be a bit of a drag- but it's also very fun, and if you stick with it, you'll get some great results!
