Facebook/Twitter

I think that it is a mistake to attempt to compare Facebook and Twitter. On both sites, users become entangled in the development of an online image, however, this image is constructed very differently on the two sites.

The most obvious difference between the two images is that on Twitter, the user identity does not necessarily have to be tied into the real world identity of the user due to the option of anonymity. It is still important to note that this user identity is still an identity that a user must cultivate. Even without the assignment of a real world name, the username becomes a construct in itself. There is a self-consciousness with which even anonymous twitter users tweet. There is still a connection to this anonymous identity that is run by vanity. People do not want to be boring or to be considered a spam-like, feed-cluttering Follow, and hence, people cultivate their user identities to be interesting.

Although, many Facebook users similarly do not want to clutter their Friends Newsfeeds, it is expected of Facebook to be more personal. The identity that is cultivated by the user does not only include informative status updates, but also photos and a profile detailing interests. (Even the absence of filling out the profile section or of photos is a part of a Facebook identity.) The updates are thus a part of a larger image that is furthermore tied to a real world persona. This real world person is more interesting than the information they spit out. This person stands on its own as interesting. On Facebook, users are still motivated by vanity, but they exercise this vanity to create an overall image of themselves that includes much more than the occasional 140 character tweet.

Both Facebook and Twitter allow users to create online images of themselves; however, the Twitter image is a markedly different one than the Facebook one.

Twitter Lists

A new feature on Twitter are the Lists. Anyone can create a list consisting of any public profile (or profile of someone who has granted you access to view their tweets). I used the List feature to create a list of everyone in our class on Twitter. I am not sure that I got everyone, so feel free to Tweet at me (@CC12887), and I will quickly add you to the list!

Now that I have made the list, anyone (even people not on the list) can now "Follow" the list I created. Once you have done this, you can click "@cc12887/Trinity-bloggers" on the right hand side of your screen, and only tweets by people on the list (our class) will show up!

I wish I could Tweet at a list so that every time I want to say something about Twitter, I don't have to create a whole new blog post!

Anywaaay, a few useful tools:

Mashable does a free Twitter Guide Book for those of you who are still lost. It is updated consistently as Twitter continues to try out new features.

Answers.com also has a 5 Twitter Tips You May Not Know. Posted by Susan Elaine Cooper (@buzzedition)

Find Friends on Twitter

If you are looking for people to follow, go to the search box on your Facebook page and type in twitter.com. Then select "People" from the left hand side. A lot of people put their Twitter site on Facebook in the website section. Facebook will show you your friends who have done this. It is only a matter of time before Facebook adds Twitter Username as an option.

I Follow:

For those of you new to Twitter, here are some people I enjoy Following.

For some laughs, my absolute favorite follow is @badbanana.
           Also, @weirdnews, @kennethn,
For social media updates, @mashable is the obvious user to follow.
Random (incredibly interesting) information: @guykawasaki
Celebs that are worth the follow:
      Stephen Colbert @stephenathome
*REMEMBER if you are going to follow a celebrity, make sure that it is a "verified account." Twitter did not have this feature when I first started out, and it's really useful.
*ALSO, keep in mind that a lot of celebrities have staff updating the their profiles, so obviously, following PR conscious stars like Britney Spears is kind of a bore.

Hockey Fans: @ecklund
Sports Fans: @deucedbrains -- He's just starting out but I love his commentary.
News is the obvious: @BBCworld, @thecnnwire, @nytimes ......

    I also enjoy following specific reporters from these news organizations. That way, you can get information more tailored to your interests (your favorite movie critique, restaurant critique, fashionista, Republican commentator...)

I enjoy Twitter

There are a bunch of different reasons I enjoy Twitter. I really don't have time to fill out a blog daily, and since so much of my time is spent writing essays, doing readings, etc, I really don't have that much to say on a blog every day. If a blog isn't updated regularly, it loses followers, so I am not a blogger. (Ironically, I am blogging this.) I have time to update my Twitter fairly regularly - random thoughts I have, something I see on TV, read about, something someone else Tweets, I then retweet.

I admit that at first, I did not get the point, but I did enjoy trying to amass followers. For me, more followers implied that I had been 'successful' as a user. Since then, I have learned to love Twitter for thousands of other reasons, and I don't think much about getting followers. I imagine it is similar to having a blog in that you don't actually know that people are reading your posts or necessarily know the people that read them, but you write the posts as if there is an audience, without much thought to that audience. I tweet things I find interesting or my random thoughts on movies I have seen, and it is as if there is an audience that I am writing to. This audience would be interested in the articles I find, but I know that most of the people reading my tweets are people that I know, so they probably care more about the fact that my friend Adrienne is coming to visit me this weekend. But I still refuse to use Twitter to update the world of the mundane happenings in my life. So there is a disconnect between those two lines of thought. I still enjoy tweeting however.

An Article on Twitter

I posted this earlier, but check it out. This is a blog post I did about Twitter earlier in the semester, which links to an article that I wrote about Twitter last Spring.

http://persephonesplayland.blogspot.com/2009/09/one-writers-quest-to-unearth.html

A couple of other things...

RT @fadymansour KFC became a trending topic after Magic Johnson said MJ ate a KFC fried chicken bucket when he visited. No ad can top that!

"We've become a race of Peeping Toms. What people ought to do is get outside their own house and look in for a change." -- Rear Window


Ayatollah Warns Iranians: "I am Following You All on Twitter" http://bit.ly/PGgu5

"Facebook is like Cheers, where everyone knows your name. Twitter is the hipster bar, where you booze and schmooze people" - Annie Colbert