Twitter

Who'd have thought that by 2012, 140 million people would take time out of their day to follow famous personalities from around the globe, or for that matter, would we feel the need to publicly express their every moment in 140 characters or less? When so many people have previously invested so much in keeping up to date with the lives their favourite celebrities, Twitter enables us to go one step further and communicate directly with those who inspire us. It puts users at the forefront of world news and current affairs.
When once upon a time people would gossip amongst friends about trivial matters they've read in a tabloid, they can now communicate their feelings to the world and maybe even make a few friends at the same time. Its human nature to want to express ourselves; so when a social networking site such as Facebook has experienced so much success as a place to share and communicate with friends, its hardly surprising that Twitter which enables us to communicate with the world has been so phenomenally popular also.
I think Howard Rheingold's theory of an emergence of virtual communities is crucial to the concept of Twitter. By searching for trending topics on Twitter we can get behind the things that matter most to this global online community, by adding a hashtag to the end of our tweet we can engage in communication with people whom we would otherwise have never come into contact with.
This is an online community that empowers the people. With Twitter, not only is it is evident to see what is important to the masses, it gives the average user a voice. This is why so many businesses are now using Twitter, not only is it free advertising but it offers customers a forum to rant or rave about what they like about the business. This gives companies an insight into their customer base from which they can use to build and improve on their business practices. In many ways Twitter has revolutionised communication in breaking down the barrier between the public and the heads of the worlds major corporations, heads of political parties and of course celebrities. Even news programs ask viewers to text in their opinions on their top stories, with hosts often reading out tweets in real time on the show; 'The Project' is a perfect example of this practice in the industry. For the sole reason that Twitter is giving the people a voice to the world, I don't believe that Twitter will be going away any time in the near future. As long as it can keep up, stay fresh and adapt with the needs of consumers in our ever changing virtual lives I think it will hold its place as a social networking standard for many of us.    




http://mashable.com/2012/03/21/history-of-twitter-timeline/#4712116-Japanese-Earthquake-and-Tsunami
http://mashable.com/2012/06/05/twitter-for-beginners/http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html