Twitter is a social networking site at which groups of people enter short messages for broadcast to a group of people who have chosen to receive them. My best friend introduced me to Twitter a couple of years ago, and I quickly learned that with it I could keep abreast of the comings and goings of my cabal of friends. The brief staccato chirping of the messages (called "tweets") gave me a feeling of being informed and in the know about events happening in the day-to-day lives of my favorite people, although they were half a world away. After a while, though, I began to feel like my friends had been reduced to a bunch of NPC drones, whose existence consisted of a long string of disconnected actions. Their messages provided all of the stage direction, but none of the dialog; all of the itineraries, but none of the happenings. My circle of friends, distilled to a staccato chirping of "where am I?" had lost much of the bigger picture. Forced brevity and one-sided style can lead to a feeling of emptiness or disconnectedness.
Background
Founded in by Evan Williams, Biz Stone, Noah Glass and Jack Dorsey, Twitter has been described as a "micro-blogging" service. After registering, the user can look for twitter members and receive their tweets. The Twitter home displays a page of these tweets, arranged from the most recent to the least recent, in an easy-to-read format, with the author of each message identified by a picture at the left. At the top of the page, the site asks "What are you doing?" above an area in which one can input his latest message. These messages are constrained to 140 characters to allow for their transmission via SMS, a service that was once freely available as a part of Twitter, but has since been removed. A number of third-party applications exist which allow the user to customize the display and receipt of these messages. The overall impact is an intuitive, readable, easy-to-use way to communicate.
Internet forums (or Message Boards) provide a means of posting threaded discussions on various topics. The topics can be limited by a forum moderator, or a more laissez-faire, free-for-all approach. Each forum participant can choose which thread he or she chooses to read, and threads are typically grouped into sub-forums. Users are often assigned levels and privileges related to the number of posts he or she has. Most forums are part of a larger site, which defines the character of the forum. Game Spot, a games site which Alexa ranks as the 123 most popular site on the web, offers forums dedicated to various game discussion topics, categorized by era, or platform. Penny Arcade, a web comic based on gaming culture, offers similar choices. Slowtwitch (and its forum) provides a venue for the discussion of triathlon, issues related specifically to women in triathlon, and others. Most message boards are moderated--the moderator is tasked with removing offensive posts or threads, and banning users that are unusually disruptive.
Focus
This article presents the case that Twitter is an insufficient tool for meaningful social interaction, and presents a contrast to message boards.
Reflection
I'll be honest from the outset; I'm a forum junkie. I'm a member of no less than a dozen message boards, some of which I've belonged to for a number of years, amassing thousands (or even tens of thousands) of posts over that time. The premise of a message board is that one user presents a topic, and others present contrasting or supporting opinions. Points and counterpoints are made. Eventually, a point of boredom is reached and all thread participants move on, or a level of vitriol is reached which requires the interference of a moderator. The topics range from political, to the practical to ridiculous. provide a venue for conversational exchange. In practice, this results in a long series of conversations between participants, the exchange of ideas and opinion. In my experience, wit and humor are the currency of these exchanges.
About half of my friends on Twitter are also friends from message boards. The experience of communicating with them through twitter was entirely different from that of our usual interactions. Instead of a 10,000 word debate about whether Geithner should be strung up for incompetence, or whether he needs to be given more time to calm the US financial system, or whether Sammy Sosa's number should be retired, I received things like, "Craving a pineapple float from the Tiki Room." While I appreciated my friends reporting their whereabouts, I felt like there was no quality of discourse. All of a sudden, they were a serious of locations and brief actions. There was no interaction, no humor, no sparring.
On Twitter, I also found that I tended to limit my circle to people I knew. On message boards, new members are typically lured by the content of the parent site of the forum, providing an instant commonality of interests. Friendships develop over time, as people reveal more and more of their personalities through their postings. As a social tool, I have found that forums have provided me with access to people of more diverse backgrounds, from more geographical regions.
Conclusion
While I found Twitter to be a useful tool for status updates and the quick check-in, I found that into comparison to my experiences with discussion forums, the experience was without much depth for me. To be fair, in my physical life, I have little use for small talk, and I've been known to beg even my closest friends to "get to the point already," so I might not be a good target for this type of social software. To me, conversation is the basic unit of human interaction, and I found that I could not find it there.
References
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2007/05/twitter-founders-thrive-on-micro-blogging-constraints137.html
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/faq.php?faq=vb3_board_usage#faq_vb3_forums_threads_posts
Friday, April 3, 2009
42107404-"Where am I?" versus "What are we talking about?": A contrast of the Twitter format and Internet Message Boards
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3 comments:
A very clear reflection, good work!
I think this is a very interesting reflection as you compare the social applications which definitely different. I can see how your passion in message board compare to twitter and I agree with you that it is totally different when we are communicating in Twitter and message board and I also found it more enjoyable while using message board because, as you said, we may know the characteristic of the people from how they write. I also think that, somehow, message board is more colorful than twitter. X)
Well done!
I find it interesting* that you found Twitter to be throttling and restricting conversation rather than augmenting it. I suppose this is due to taking Twitter on face value: just writing messages in terms of the "What are you doing?" question, and consigning entire moments and thoughts into a single message. If, perhaps, you and your company were to grow comfortable within Twitter's system of social interaction, you'd begin to notice livelier Twitter interactions rather than mere factual declarations.
*This is the third time I've started a comment with those words. Clearly I need some sleep.
I agree that twitter is too succinct and limited for it to be considered meaninful interaction. I feel twitter's power lies in its potential to be a useful tool rather then an entertainment application - such as it being used for mass communication to relevant/willing recipients. Used outside its intended purpose, twitter can be powerhouse of communication.
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