Since its availability, Twitter has been used for much
more than socializing and marketing. One example of this is when the Egyptian
people used it to plan and coordinate their protests against the government.
One man says they used twitter to coordinate their massive gatherings and
protests. Twitter served as a unification tool and really gathered like-minded
people together in order to fight for what they thought was right and just.
Twitter is perhaps the fastest social media platform of them all at leaking
information. An example of this would be the Boston Marathon explosions. Within
minutes of these explosions happening, they were all over Twitter, some even
being recorded in real time. Twitter is now used as a news distribution
platform because of its immediacy. Some people even get their news updates
strictly from Twitter. Another example of Twitter being a news platform would
be the Paris terrorist attacks. Within 24 hours of the attacks happening, there
were four million tweets that were sent out regarding the issue. ISIS is known
for using social media as a means of recruiting people. Due to this number of
tweets being sent out, it is safe to say that violence garners much more
negative attention than positive. This is contradictory of what ISIS plans to
do when they claim responsibility for things like this on social media. Much
the same way that the Egyptian people used Twitter to band together to fight
government, the people of the world used Twitter to condemn ISIS and come
together as one to try and fight the terrorist organization.
Twitter can be used very effectively as a
journalistic, political and organizational tool simply because of its reach. It
is a massive social media platform with tens of millions of people on it every
day. In terms of journalism, speed and timeliness are the two most important
factors when breaking a story or reporting on something. Twitter allows
literally instantaneous release of information. If a newsworthy event happens
and someone who has Twitter is standing there watching, they can tweet it out
within a few seconds, and everyone who follows them will know about what is
going on. Twitter is a very powerful tool when in the hands of a journalist.
Twitter and social media was used more than ever in
this past election cycle, and for good reason. The whole point of politics is
to reach as many people as possible in the hopes that they will like your
ideas, and ultimately support you in an election. How do you reach the maximum
amount of people with the least amount of effort and resources? The answer is
social media. The majority of the population in the advanced world has a cell
phone and social media, so it is very easy to reach all of these people and get
your message out. It also allows the candidate to remain in constant contact
with their followers, which is impossible to do if all you have are phone
numbers or house addresses.
Organization is also something that can be done very
easily with Twitter. If you want to create a protest or a huge gathering of
people, sending a tweet is still the fastest and most effective way of doing
so. Think about it, you would have the potential to reach millions of people in
order to get them to do something. Even something as simple as a hashtag can
create awareness and alert people as to what is going on around them. It is not
a guarantee that every single person who sees your tweet will unify to do
something, but when you are reaching that many people, there is a good chance
that a lot will.
Three events where Twitter was used as a communication
tool would be the 2016 Rio Olympics, the 2016 Presidential Election, and the
reveal of Pokemon Go. Most of the communication that was done with these three
events was done through simple hashtags. #Rio2016 presented an unusual
opportunity for the people to interact with the athletes. Athletes would often
post pictures and videos to their Twitter accounts thanking fans for the
support, and letting the people see a little bit into the more personal side of
the Olympics. The communication that took place between the athletes and fans
was a very positive thing for both sides. It made people more interested in
watching specific athletes, and it made people feel closer to them and the
sports than usual. If an athlete has a bigger social media presence, then
naturally more people will follow them because it makes them more than just a
name on a jersey. It creates a more interpersonal relationship between athlete
and fan.
#Election2016 was the second most used hashtag in
2016. More than 75 million tweets were sent out with this hashtag. Twitter
served as a continuous stream of communication between the candidates and the
people who would be voting between them. This was a huge success because it
allowed people to pay very close attention to something that they usually
wouldn’t, and it allowed them to be somewhat more informed than they usually
would be in an election. They got information directly from the candidates, not
from biased friends or family, or biased news organizations. It was an organic
way for people to get information and use it for what they think it is.
The release of Pokemon Go was a viral event. The app
was downloaded over 500 million times. The whole point of the game was to get
people outside to “hunt” for virtual Pokemon. Twitter was a success in this
situation also because it let users of the game communicate with one another
about where the rare Pokemon were. Pokemon were scattered all over the world in
different areas, so this let people all over the world who play the game
communicate with each other in order to play the game together and find all the
Pokemon. Due to the use of Twitter, an amazing amount of people downloaded and
played the game.
I followed ArchDigest
because I want to go to grad school to be an architect and I really enjoy it
and think it is interesting. I also followed VIPstylecars because I love cars.
My dad has a classic car and I owned a second car in order to modify it as a
hobby. It is my passion. I also followed Elon Musk because he started the Tesla
car company which I have interest in, but he also has a company called SpaceX
which I didn’t know anything about. This experience using Twitter was much
different from blogging because it was much faster, and it actually let you
communicate with others
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