Twitter: Cultural and Academic Relevance

In the age of the Internet, the modern era of meta-networking, new trends powered by new technologies are mounting a socially powered surge. Twitter, an unlikely frontrunner of social networking sites, has arguably assumed the pedestal of the most culturally impacting social media. The uses of Twitter have proven to be broad and sweeping, ranging from undeniable relevance, to unrefined inanity. Can these ranged uses be collaborated into something of academic value? Can Twitter, in a singular context, be referred to as "technology"? What is Twitter and how is it used? Are these uses significant? Is Twitter truly affecting society and culture, and if so, in what ways? Most specifically, can Twitter be used effectively as an academic tool?

In the last two decades the nature of Technology has changed. Once, before computers spread wide the roots of another era, technology was allowed simplicity, the base foundation of tangibility. Pre-1980, technology was material, it could be touched, cleaned, seen and broken. Technology existed with us, it was created with objects and elements that were, on a basic level, as old as time. But almost immediately after the creation of the adding machine, technology changed. A drastically enhanced stage of evolution took the circuit to the microchip then to the computer, and in this eventuality, technology found new footing. The complexity of what the computer has become allows man a new work bench, and though the old one is not obsolete, metallurgy and circuitry and the tangible sciences still have an important place, they have now been added a dimension.

Computers are constantly changing and, in general terms not a single technology that they are not a single technology, but computers introduced a tool. "Tool" doesn't seem an expansive enough word to encapsulate such scope, it is evolving in its own right. Called programming, this modern powerful tool is multi-leveled and diverse, it is a term used to describe many of the different languages of the computer, and it is the current culmination of the design and use of the computer. With these ever changing and expanding languages, the new dimension of technology is being realized as a meta-verse of possibilities that borders on the spiritual. In truth however; it is not spiritual, the technology can, at length, be charted retroactively back to its beginnings in elemental form. Man has adapted this technology in the separate social media of the internet, and the possibilities now seem almost boundless.

Twitter is an adaptation of this technology, and a developmental result of programming. Twitter is at once a result of technology and a new technological entity; just as the engine powers an airplane, programming powers Twitter. Web applets have been around for over a decade in the form of websites; with the evolution of the technology of computers, programming, and the increasing speeds of the internet, websites are becoming more malleable and more transient. The new web applets are user friendly to the point that users, not the creators, are dictating and creating the content. Whereas once, a person was either a creator or a consumer, these web applets have added new context to the term user. Just as computers were once the end product of technology and were then made a tool, certain websites were once the end product of programming, but are now being used as tools; in each stage of this progression larger and larger audiences are made privy to these tools.

Twitter is much more complicated than it initially appears. The powder blue theme and predominant repetitiveness of the status feed projects a simplistic nature. While the premise behind Twitter is in fact simplistic, its evolved uses have become deeper than perception would imply. To understand the evolved uses of Twitter, one must take a look at the intended uses of Twitter. The creator of Twitter intended it as a simple way of knowing what his friends were doing. The idea was presented to his colleagues and a prototype was built. The site focused on the one simple question: “What are you doing?”. The user is given a pulpit from which to answer this question, though in many cases the "answer" is not projected as a contextual answer to "What are you doing?", rather it is a blurb of thought or a notification of something appreciated or otherwise recognized.

The idea behind Twitter may be plain, but it is also effective; under normal circumstances users send messages or "tweets" to their entire audience of followers. No single user is required to respond, there is no responsibility to interact and the user can inject themselves into the flow of messages at a time of their choosing ("Isn't Twitter Just Too Much Information?")."The result of using Twitter to stay connected with friends, relatives, and coworkers is that you have a sense of what folks are up to but you are not expected to respond to any updates unless you want to." ("Where Did the Idea for Twitter Come From?") It is a compilation of menial updates, trivial status reminders and notifications from acquaintances, compeers and others, but when these updates are looked as a whole and in a more meaningful light, something substantial can be gained. With a look at a assembly of updates, rather than a single update, a good idea of what a person enjoys doing, finds interesting, or appreciates is not hard to construct. People share small things about themselves in large volume and it is not long until a separate online identity is created; maintaining these identities, users can begin to add their impact to the growing social and cultural influence that Twitter is creating.

Once the simplicity of Twitter has settled in, one begins to notice the other subtly implemented features. Users will sometimes want to single out a fellow "tweeter" and pose a question, response or comment. By adding the "@" symbol before a person's Twitter alias, (i.e. @user_name) Twitter will create a link to the user in question's page as well as notify them that they have been singled out. This allows people to have conversations with each other that can also be viewed by other interested parties. Perhaps the most powerful ability of Twitter is the ability to pick up on "trending topics", it finds the word or words most commonly being tweeted and permits users to view all of the latest tweets related to these topics. Users of Twitter typically append "hash tags" on to the end of their "tweets" in order to attach their "tweet" onto a specific topic. Examples include: "#annoyatrekkie", "#musicmonday", and "#swineflu". The most popular of these topics are listed on the right side of the site and a search feature allows users to view tweets that they are interested in. This feature has given Twitter the ability to keep its user base aware of current events and trends and, more importantly to academic purposes, create group specific conversation lines.

Social networking in the form of micro blogging is the foremost purpose of Twitter, but stemming out from this are many practical uses that are not obvious. Twitter users in Moldova used "tweets" to inform others of their reasons for a massive anti-communist protests; the massive volume of "tweets" earned the protesters a worldwide stage for their protests. This was one of the first examples of protestors using Twitter on a large scale in order to organize protests and inform outsiders of their needs. Iran is the latest to use Twitter for similar purposes, the world has used Twitter as a constant news source for happenings in Iran. The Iranian government, perhaps seeing the succesful precedent set by "tweeters" in Moldova, attempted to restrict Twitter access to users in Iran. This proved to have a small amount of sucess, but it was not long before the most outspoken of protestors found ways to circumvent the filters and make their voice heard; in some ways the attempted censorship acted as an amplifier to the cries of the Iranian people. Twitter has provided a conduit for the voices of the needy that was not available in times past.

"Mary F. Jenn, of True Massage and Wellness in San Francisco, twitters[sic] when masseuses have same-day openings in their schedules and offers discounts. The spa is often fully booked within several hours". Recently Amazon.com was alerted to what was later named a "mistake" or "ham fisted catalog error" by the uproar of Twitter users and the discussion line "#amazonfail". Intuit, the company that created Quickbooks uses Twitter to monitor customer feedback of competing companies, then inform them of their alternative services (Miller, "Putting Twitter's World to Use"). Clive Thompson writing for Wired Magazine explains how Twitter can be very useful in an office or work setting:

It's almost like ESP, which can be incredibly useful when applied to your work life. You know who's overloaded — better not bug Amanda today — and who's on a roll. A buddy list isn't just a vehicle to chat with friends but a way to sense their presence. Are they available to talk? Have they been away? This awareness is crucial when colleagues are spread around the office, the country, or the world. Twitter substitutes for the glances and conversations we had before we became a nation of satellite employees. ("Clive Thompson on How Twitter Creates a Social Sixth Sense.")

Recently, the actor Ashton KutcherAshton Kutcher proposed a challenge to the major news network CNN. The competition was simple, the first person to get to a million followers on Twitter wins. The news feed from CNN seems to be a more valuable pursuit than inane celebrity philosophy, and while that may be true, the race to a million followers symbolized something more important. Ashton Kutcher did in fact end up beating CNN to one million followers by a narrow margin, but the real statement made by his victory is that Twitter users, and more generally Internet users, do not want their news filtered through a system that dictates what is relevant and what will not be mentioned. These users want to view the content that is most interesting and relevant to them personally as well as globally. Perhaps recognizing the power of Twitter and the newfound ability of viewers to screen their own information, CNN and other news companies have begun to implement a more viewer driven broadcast. Now, many news presentation will include a ticker at the bottom of the television feed that contains user commentary on the subject being discussed.

Perhaps the most culturally significant use of Twitter thus far was the use of it during the Presidential campaign leading up to the election in 2008. Both John McCainJohn McCain and Barack ObamaBarack Obama had amassed quite a few followers on Twitter ("BEYOND "BOXERS OR BRIEFS?"") and On June 20, 2008 the website techPresident.com announced that John McCain and Barack Obama would participate in political debates via Twitter. The two candidates were posed questions from users of Twitter that were then answered within a set amount of time by their respective representatives. Though participation in this method of discourse was far less popular than viewership of the televised debates, it was considered a success and a later follow up debate was broadcasted on the Internet with a virtual feed of user commentary from Twitter. The resulting product was a combination of pithy sardonic remarks and profoundly insightful exegesis. (Kirkpatrick, "New Media Crashes the Presidential Debate.")

In all of these uses lie the ultimate root of academia: spreading knowledge. It is true that this alone does not render it absolutely valuable to academics, there is a larger criteria to be satisfied. However; there are several ways that Twitter is employed for academic purposes, one of which is as a communication go-between for scholars and teachers as well as a vessel for collaboration.

Dave Lester was perplexed when he was notified of the need for "A Better CFP" (CFP stands for "Call for Proposal" or "Call for Papers"). According to a "tweet" from Lester's associate, the CFP that most had been employing from The University of Pennsylvania was "down" with technical difficulties. David Parry Assistant Professor of Emerging Media from UT Dallas proposed via Twitter that the group of concerned academics just create a new one. (Lester, "The Rise of Twitter, Academic Unconverences, and announcing THATCamp 2009.") The work in progress can be viewed here: (http://abettercfp.pbworks.com/ ) Fronted by David Parry, the site is a partial success, shortly after the development of a concerted effort to create a better CFP, the University of Pennsylvania reopened their own CFP and the group decided to do one of the following: "1. Full steam ahead build a bigger and better one. 2. Wait and see what happens with UPENN and if soon doesn't happen by say the summer revisit the idea. 3. Offer to help whoever is working on it at UPENN."

One of the most effective ways that Twitter is used in academia in relation to students is as a "backchannel". Tanner Higgin at tannerhiggin.the-means.com/blog/ defines backchannels as "a networked discussion that occurs behind, but in conjunction with, some kind of primary presentation of material " (Higgin, "Twitter in the Classroom: Backchanneling a Film Screening."). Students can use Twitter to create classroom commentaries on lectures that, in effect, create communal notes on the lecture as well as fashion a better understanding for the class as a whole (Lenore, "Blog Carolinas and Twitter"). Higgin used this concept in conjunction with a classroom viewing of Terminator 2 in relation to gender analysis. The assignment can be viewed by searching topics on Twitter with the "hash tag" "#cmact2". He proclaims that the assignment was a success on many levels. Students that were normally introverted were much more likely to engage in class discussions that were otherwise dominated by a few of the outspoken students; where other teaching techniques employ methods of making introverted students extroverts, this technique allows the introverts to participate in an effective fashion without being forced to bring unwanted attention directly upon their person. Another useful facet of his use of Twitter was that it enabled himself and the class to discuss the movie as it was playing, saving class time and providing immediate instructor and student driven contextualization of the film's content. Higgin recommends that other practitioners of this technique use dual screens, one to play the film, and the other to display the Twitter feed; "this would also help those students who cannot contribute to the feed still feel like part of the activity". (Higgin, "Twitter in the Classroom: Backchanneling a Film Screening.")

Twitter can create a closer knit community of students and teachers, David Parry has noted a greater sense of comradeship and community after encouraging his class to use Twitter. Similar to Higgin's observations regarding introverted student's participation in Twitter propelled conversations, Parry has noticed better classroom dynamic interaction among more introverted students after a comfortable environment was instituted via Twitter. In a recent interview with Linda Briggs from the website Campus Technology, Parry discussed the affect of his class's Twitter community on the classroom community:

Students use it as a way to talk about their classes. Often, the chatter will turn to talking about their schoolwork because that forms so much of what their life is about. But also, it gives me a sense--and I think it gives the students a sense--of what a person is like outside of the classroom. Knowing that substantially changes the dynamics of what goes on inside the classroom. ("Micro Blogging with Twitter. A Q&A with David Parry, assistant professor of Emerging Media at the University of Texas at Dallas")

This effect creates other advantages for the students. Many times when a student needs help or input they can "use this [Twitter] when doing their classwork, trying to understand the material" (Parry, "Twitter for Academia"). This could be helpful to both teachers and students. Near immediate feedback from a teacher on a reading assignment could be very helpful in the contextual understanding of text or a teacher's criticism helpful to the development of a project. A teacher could probe the understanding of a class while formulating a lecture on subjects that are obscure (Parry, "Twitter for Academia").

Another way for students to use Twitter is to follow a professional in their prospective field; getting an idea of what the day to day demands of that profession will be could be invaluable to potential practitioners. This could conceivably lead to a student's decision to choose another career path or a deeper devotion to the career path already chosen. (Parry, " Twitter for Academia").

Twitter's academic value does not always come from positive points, because of Twitter's 140 character cap, grammar is often abused. Words are shortened, punctuation is sometimes left out and what is left is a tangible example of how the rules of grammar are needed; words, when presented without the necessary ornaments of punctuation, easily lose their meaning to ambiguity. These changes in grammar are not necessarily bad, with the strictures of the 140 cap and the understanding that an altered approach to grammar is needed, conditional or rule based writing can be taught (Parry, " Twitter for Academia").

Twitter, like the technology leading to and constructing it, is likely not the end product of society altering web applets. The most effective uses of future applets will probably come from many different services operating as one, but for now, Twitter is the most effective. It has answered all of the questions posed at the onset of this paper to the affirmative and yet the effects of services like Twitter have not been exhausted. I have merely touched on the issues that are allowing Twitter and its users the power to alter our modern culture as well as more efficiently educate students and scholars. The motivations of the users, the identities that they have created, and the effects of what the Twitter community is capable of run much deeper.

The imaginable uses of Twitter and programs like it hold intrigue in many fields, the extended effects on business and business society, the social development of children and younger textually driven generations. Twitter has simultaneously become both the ears and the voice of a burgeoning society. It has empowered its users with the abilities to attain worldwide recognition with a concerted effort. It has engendered culture with expectations from its news carriers; at once it has shown corporations that people can and will choose what they consume as well as give society the vessel to do so. It is changing the way we organize, the way that we identify with others, the tools we use to communicate, the ways that we teach each other, and the ways that we decide what is important to us individually. Twitter has armed teachers with a new and relatively untested method of spreading knowledge. Twitter is one of the first steps toward a culture where humanity is allowed customization of the way that it exists, rather than a mere subsistence in a mass of generalized products and media.

Note

Do to the inconsistency of online resources in relation to citing online resources I employed the following format:

Last Name, First Name. "Name of Article". Date Created. Source Location. Date Accessed. <URL>.

References:

"BEYOND "BOXERS OR BRIEFS?": New Media Brings Youth to Politics Like Never Before." Phi Kappa Phi Forum 88.2 (Summer2008 2008): 14- 16. AcademicSearch Complete. EBSCO. 11 May 2009 <http://search.ebscohost.com.libproxy.utdallas.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&;db=a 9h&AN=33381914&site=ehost-live&gt;.

Briggs, Linda. "Micro Blogging with Twitter. A Q&A with David Parry, assistant professor of Emerging Media at the University of Texas at Dallas." 5 March 2008 Web. 10 April 2009. <http://www.campustechnology.com/Articles/2008/03/Micro-Blogging-with- Twitter.aspx>.

Higgin, Tanner. "Twitter in the Classroom: Backchanneling a Film Screening." 11 May 2009. Web. 11 May 2009 <tannerhiggin.the-means.com/blog/>.

Kirkpatrick, Marshal. "New Media Crashes the Presidential Debate." 16 September 2009. 10 April 2009. <http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/new_media_changes_presidential.php>

Lester, Dave. "The Rise of Twitter, Academic Unconverences, and announcing THATCamp 2009." 12 February 2009. Web. 10 April 2009. <http://blog.davelester.org/2009/02/12/the-rise-of-twitter-academic- unconferences-and-announcing-thatcamp-2009/>.

Miller, Claire. "Putting Twitter's World to Use." 13 April 2009. Web. 15 April 2009. <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/14/technology/internet/14twitter.html?_r= 2&pagewanted=1&ref=business>.

Parry, David. "Twitter for Academia." 2008. Web. 15 April 2009. <http://academhack.outsidethetext.com/home/2008/twitter-for-academia/>.

Ram, Lenore. "Blog Carolinas and Twitter." 10 May 2008. Web. 28 April 2009. <http://eronel.blogspot.com/2008/05/blog-carolinas-and-twitter.html>.

Thompson, Clive. "Clive Thompson on How Twitter Creates a Social Sixth Sense." Wired Magazine. 26 June 2007. Web. 10 April 2009. <http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/15-07/st_thompson>

Twitter. "Where Did the Idea for Twitter Come From?" 2009. Web. 10 April 2009. <http://twitter.com/about#about>.

Twitter. "Isn't Twitter Just Too Much Information?" 2009. Web. 10 April 2009. <http://twitter.com/about#about>.