Twitter By: Shreela Talukder

What is Social Media?  The definition of social media is a form of communication which allows people to interact or send messages to each other.  Based on this definition, Twitter is a social media network because one person can send a message to a whole group of people through this website.

What is Twitter? Twitter is a form of social media which enables users to post (and send) short, up to 140 character messages to one another. These messages are called “tweets”. Twitter is an SMS (Short Messaging Service). The meaning of SMS is, a text messaging service which allows people to send short text messages to each other.

The Creation of Twitter After brainstorming for a day, Jack Dorsey, a university student, came up with the idea of creating a new SMS service that would allow one to message a whole group of people. With the help of Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass, Jack Dorsey created Twttr. The website was launched in 2006, however soon after the name was changed to

 1. Create an account at Register your name, address and in the space provided.  2. To enter a message, click on the “What’s Happening” text box. To send the message, click the “tweet” button.  3.Retweet any messages that your friends have posted. To do so, simply click “retweet”.

How to Use Twitter (continued) 4. Using hashtags (#) and a word or phrase (e.g. #funny) to categorize tweets makes them easily searchable on Twitter. 5. By posting amusing tweets one may gather followers. The more followers one has, the greater popularity they gain.

 They can “hang out” with their friends.  Grade sevens use Twitter as a source of information, rather than calling, ing, or texting their friends.  Some people enjoy playing games advertised on Twitter.  Those who constantly check their Twitter page use it to express their feelings.

 Since Twitter is supposed to be for fast, instant messaging, students are making grammatical errors when on Twitter. These mistakes also occur in their writing at school.  Students are not very thoughtful of the vocabulary used when messaging, due to the limit of only 140 characters per message. This is also reflected in their writing.

 Again, due to the limit of 140 characters for each message, students don’t have the scope to type long, flowing sentences on Twitter. The result of this is that their sentence structure when writing in school is incorrect.  Instead of studying, students spend an excessive amount of time on Twitter, which may lead to poorer grades in school.

 Here is a video showing how to access Twitter:  Twitter Tutorial Twitter Tutorial

How Twitter has Influenced Society  Sending a complaint about a business on Twitter causes a “twitterstorm” in which the followers retweet the message to hundreds of other people. The companies do not want a bad reputation, and so they change their policies or habits.  Twitter is one of the first places where breaking news is reported.  One of the first people followed on Twitter are celebrities. Following celebrities gives people the feeling of being connected to someone famous.

Concluding Remarks  Twitter, like most other social media websites, is intended to be for positive purposes, such as connecting one person to another and also a large number of people at a very fast pace. In that sense, we are thankful to modern technology. However, over dependency on it can cause adverse effects. We must be careful of how much time we spend on social media, and not to bring it to an addictive level.

Bibliography  Here is the list of websites I have used for reference:     