Tweet, tweet: the Twitter phenomenon

When Kathie Chang, CSOM '11, wakes up in the morning and wants to find out what her friends are up to, she just checks her Blackberry. She might discover one of her friends is reading a news article online, another is doing work in the study lounge, Britney Spears is drinking her morning cup of coffee, and Ellen Degeneres is preparing for an appearance on her television show. All this happens within seconds, and Chang doesn't even need to leave her bed.

Chang uses a social networking Web site called Twitter, a micro-blogging service that allows users to post brief updates for their friends and followers. These updates, or "tweets," capitalize on the status updates of Facebook and answer the question of 'What are you doing?' The posts are short, limited to 140 characters, and users are free to follow other friends, celebrities, or politicians as they update on their daily lives.

Twitter was publicly launched in August 2006 and quickly attracted a number of users, forcing the company to expand. Nonetheless, Twitter remained a relatively underground phenomenon until recently. In the past year, the number of users has increased by 900 percent, according to the company and has entered the spheres of celebrity gossip and political campaigning. Martha Stewart, Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Barack Obama, Lance Armstrong, Shaquille O'Neal, and even Boston College and The Heights have jumped on the Twitter bandwagon.

Those who have joined have quickly become loyal advocates of the mini-blogs. Eric Nam, A&S '11, joined Twitter four weeks ago after being convinced to try it by one of his contacts during BC's Tech Trek. While he was skeptical at first, he soon became a believer.

"Twitter takes cares of all the needs I have with Facebook without all the extra junk, like applications," Nam says. "For me, it's a way to quickly get an update on my friend or the news, or celebrities - things that I'm actually interested in. I don't have to go to 15 different Web sites to find stuff about the economy, or travel," Nam says. "I can find exactly what I want and it can give me what I need."

Chang follows 50 users, including friends, news Web sites, and celebrities. Unlike Facebook, however, the primary intention is to receive daily updates on current friends' lives, rather than to keep in touch with friends from the past. Users can also choose to respond to others' tweets, or direct a tweet to one specific person.

"It's a constant conversation you have with everyone you want to hear from," Chang says. "I choose to find certain people, like friends or certain celebrities. It's much easier to keep up with everyone's lives that way. It's not Facebook where you can be connected to all your old friends; you're connected to the people you want to be connected to."

While following so many users who update multiple times a day might sound like a time-consuming endeavor, it only takes Nam a minute to skim through his page of updates since each post has a limited character-count.

"Because it's only 140 characters, it is really fast updates," Nam says. "It's not this dissertation of texts that you have to rummage through - it's quick, you know what the point is, and that's all you need."

With such brief messages, a culture has grown around the kind of tweets people post. "It's only 140 characters so you're not writing an entire paragraph about your life so it makes you be really concise and think about how you present things and how you word things," Nam says.

The most time consuming aspect of Twitter is not reading other tweets, but updating one's own. For some, finding a witty tweet or a worthy link to post has become an obsession. Singer John Mayer tweets, "You ever tweet something and then feel compelled to spend the letters you have left? I mean, have you? Seriously? So yah. That's all. 654321."

Some post links to songs, news articles, and Web sites, while others update on their daily activities. Chang says she updates her twitter five to six times a day, often with articles she thinks her friends might find interesting. "I update my twitter religiously," Chang says. "If I find a great article or hear a good song. It's a constant feed of what I'm doing."

While Twitter is increasingly appealing to a young audience, it is also popular among a slightly older crowd, particularly business professionals. Its simple design and short, text-based messages have attracted older users who are less technologically savvy. Seung-A Jin, professor in the communication department, says that one of Twitter's strongest features is its perceived ease of use.

"Elderly people might not use Facebook or Myspace because it's too complicated,"Jin says. "Compared to this, Twitter is just text-based, easy to use, simpler. You don't have to invest much time or energy."

Twitter and other social networking tools also take off some of the pressure that can accompany real-time communication. While these sites claim to offer a live feed, in reality users have time to think and craft responses, rather than participating in a continuous conversation with instant feedback.

"The key benefit of computer-mediated communication is that it is delayed communication. People have more time to think about what kind of information they are going to disclose," Jin says.

Twitter serves as a means of self-publicity as well as self-disclosure. Businesses, politicians and celebrities are using the service for free publicity, both formally and informally. Celebrities tweet about upcoming performances, with whom they had lunch, and what they think of their performance in last night's basketball game. Some, such as Britney Spears, have even hired ghost writers to tweet for them.

While it allows celebrities to promote themselves without the media, to the delight of their followers, they often publish without first gaining clearance from their public relations people. Users can watch celebrities interact in a very public way, as Martha Stewart sends a tweet to Snoop Dogg and Ashton and Demi exchange sentimental tweets.

"Celebrities can use it to remind people that they are also ordinary individuals, and can appeal as more human-like life," Jin says. "They can use Twitter for self-advertisement. It's actually very cost-effective."

While not all users might have the large fan base that users Diddy and Michael Phelps have, Chang says that even if none of her friends were users and she had no followers, she would still use Twitter.

"Even if no one is following me, I have a record of what I am doing and it's almost like a diary," Chang said. "I love Twitter."