Tweetledum and Tweetledee

Source:  https://twitter.com/jack/status/20 - The very first ‘tweet’ by co-founder Jack Dorsey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Dorsey).

"On Twitter we get excited if someone follows us. In real life we get really scared and run away." 

~Unknown via @mozusa 

Didn’t your Mother teach you not to talk to strangers? Yet in this digital age of social networking sites we ‘follow’ strangers and crave their reciprocating attention.  

This week's group delivered another thorough presentation on the social networking site Twitter.  This social phenomenon allows users to create profiles where they can express themselves in 140 characters or less , post photos, videos (Vine) to the twitter world at large and can send private messages to other twitter users.  Users can also choose to follow any number of fellow twitter users, essentially resembling a popularity contest.  Also due to the added fact that twitter can analyse and submit your own statistics to you at the drop of a hat, you can know who’s winning the popularity race.  Currently, there is over 230+ million monthly active users tweeting 500 million tweets a day (https://about.twitter.com/company, 2013).  The winners of twitter so far include President Barack Obama with over 40 million followers but the title of 'most popular' with the largest number of followers is Katy Perry with over 47 million.  Other contenders include Justin Bieber, YouTube, Lady Gaga, Instagram and Justin Timberlake.  

As a fellow ‘tweeter’ myself I have 16 followers, I follow 274 other tweeters (mostly strangers) and have posted 38 tweets since 23 September 2013.  In the twitter-sphere I am a loser, and I’m really comfortable with that!  I must confess I created a twitter profile to  follow celebrity feuds for their ridiculous and somehow entertaining content.  Somehow I have a disturbing fascination with watching a filthy rich celebrity quickly demise towards an attention seeking lunatic that dribbles brass content in 140 characters.  Not that any of my tweets fair much better but I’m a nobody, so who cares, nobody! 

But the question still must be asked, why is twitter so popular? Is it our celebrity obsessed culture that fuels this phenomenon or an individuals need for validation by others or a combination of the two?  I think it's a combination of the two.  My own guilty pleasure of peering into a celebrity's life lead to my twitter profile but some would argue many of us participate on social networking sites for attention.  

Commercially twitter is used by many businesses to advertise their goods and/or services in the same way Facebook can be used.  Followers can get live updates of product deals or even events.  In a sense it's a 24/7 digital billboard constantly in touch with your market through micro-blogging.  Some companies have even gone as far to pay celebrities to tweet about their products to boost their reach to the market.  According to 2013 research conducted by Wood & Burkhalter:  Kim Kardashian has earned $10,000 per advertised tweet for shoedazzle.com.  It is claimed that as her  popularity increases, so too does her pay rate as she tweets to 18,779,056 followers. (Wood & Burkhalter 2013, p. 6).

Another issue on the rise regarding Twitter is fake followers.  Apparently, there are computer generated robot that is paid to create fake profiles and essentially fake followers. Some would argue it's to edge out your rival in the popularity contest of who has more followers, as if it's some sort of test regarding your likability! It is also legal but can be damaging to your credibility, especially if a public figure, once details reveal you have paid to increase your followers.  Probably not worth it if you are a presidential candidate like Mitt Romney trying to gain the confidence of the American public, when it's revealed your rapid 17% increase in followers was the result of paid fake followers. 

Ultimately, Twitter is winning, it has us.  On a slow news day celebrity feuds through twitter can make the nightly news.  In recent years I've noticed television shows running live feeds during programming from their twitter profiles, making watching an interactive experience. For better or worse, even if you don't have a twitter account you are bombarded with tweets and news on what goes on between users on a daily basis.  I don't think we will see any less of this little blue bird in the coming years.  Tweet-tweet!!