My Twitter Binge
During Step 1, I noticed that I hardly ever communicate via Twitter, possibly because I prefer direct communication to “updates.” For this reason, I decided it would be interesting to regularly utilize Twitter for a test period of four to five days. Before this week of Twitter-binging, I interpreted Twitter as an update-based social medium. In the past, most of my experiences with Twitter caused me to believe that, unlike Facebook, it was not cut out for consistent interactions with specific people. To me, tweeting at someone disrupted the flow of a user’s “page,” because, typically, when I look through individuals’ Twitter feeds, I skip over the tweets that are directed at specific people. From an outsider’s perspective, they seem irrelevant to almost everyone but the people who are tagged. The process of looking through a specific person’s feed is muddied when the viewer must click to see what a tweet was in reply to.
During this four to five day period, I made a point to check Twitter whenever I checked any other social media network. I wanted to make sure I was getting an impression of what it would be like to use Twitter in the manner that a lot of my friends do. For this reason, I did not want to over-use it. I shared my objective for the project with my boss, and he offered some helpful suggestions, taking into account how he uses Twitter. I told him that I follow most everyone that follows me on Twitter, which is really just everyone I know. He suggested that I un-follow those accounts that I had no interest in and follow some design accounts that I might find stimulating and relevant to my occupation. I also decided to make the effort to tweet daily, to see if I found it rewarding.
In addition to following my boss’s advice, I found myself looking through the tweets of my close friends that I had neglected from my lack of Twitter usage. I sat there for close to an hour, favoriting a ridiculous amount of tweets from a bunch of my friends. My binge must have been substantial, because my friend, who is currently in Barcelona, sent me a screenshot of all of the notifications my activity had given him. I found that I really enjoyed looking through the accounts of my close friends, because I was familiar with the people that they were tagging in their tweets and the subjects of their tweets. For me, this placed Twitter on the level of a more interaction-based form of social media. Though I wasn’t actually tweeting at my friend, I found myself reading his tweets in his voice and laughing aloud, interacting with the media.
I find it interesting that Harold Innis’s theories of time-based and space-based media are still relevant to communication through modern social media. Innis describes time-based media as media that stand the test of time, but reach limited audiences. Space-based media, however, are described as media that have a large breadth, but a short exposure time. Though Innis would probably classify most social media as space-based, I would argue that some are more time-based than others. It is easier for me to access my old posts and photos on Facebook than it would be for me to find my oldest tweet. Facebook has acted as a catalogue for our social lives and activities since whenever we first logged in. Though I’m not sure if my Facebook or Twitter account has more breadth, I would say it is more likely that something I post would get “retweeted” than “shared.” Using a modern application of Innis’s theory, I was able to determine what I liked about each social medium. From my testing, I have determined that I like both types of media because they can serve me in different ways.
During this four to five day period, I made a point to check Twitter whenever I checked any other social media network. I wanted to make sure I was getting an impression of what it would be like to use Twitter in the manner that a lot of my friends do. For this reason, I did not want to over-use it. I shared my objective for the project with my boss, and he offered some helpful suggestions, taking into account how he uses Twitter. I told him that I follow most everyone that follows me on Twitter, which is really just everyone I know. He suggested that I un-follow those accounts that I had no interest in and follow some design accounts that I might find stimulating and relevant to my occupation. I also decided to make the effort to tweet daily, to see if I found it rewarding.
In addition to following my boss’s advice, I found myself looking through the tweets of my close friends that I had neglected from my lack of Twitter usage. I sat there for close to an hour, favoriting a ridiculous amount of tweets from a bunch of my friends. My binge must have been substantial, because my friend, who is currently in Barcelona, sent me a screenshot of all of the notifications my activity had given him. I found that I really enjoyed looking through the accounts of my close friends, because I was familiar with the people that they were tagging in their tweets and the subjects of their tweets. For me, this placed Twitter on the level of a more interaction-based form of social media. Though I wasn’t actually tweeting at my friend, I found myself reading his tweets in his voice and laughing aloud, interacting with the media.
I find it interesting that Harold Innis’s theories of time-based and space-based media are still relevant to communication through modern social media. Innis describes time-based media as media that stand the test of time, but reach limited audiences. Space-based media, however, are described as media that have a large breadth, but a short exposure time. Though Innis would probably classify most social media as space-based, I would argue that some are more time-based than others. It is easier for me to access my old posts and photos on Facebook than it would be for me to find my oldest tweet. Facebook has acted as a catalogue for our social lives and activities since whenever we first logged in. Though I’m not sure if my Facebook or Twitter account has more breadth, I would say it is more likely that something I post would get “retweeted” than “shared.” Using a modern application of Innis’s theory, I was able to determine what I liked about each social medium. From my testing, I have determined that I like both types of media because they can serve me in different ways.