How Twitter revolutionized human interaction
When Twitter launched in March 2006, few could have predicted the impact it would have on modern culture.
The social media platform has gone beyond acting as a welcome mouthpiece for the ordinary person, sharing ordinary thoughts and humdrum snippets with anyone who wants to listen. But what is it becoming?
Some grimace, saying it’s forming an insidious swamp of ‘progressive’ morality — a place where ‘cancel culture and ‘online shaming’ is given full reign by 21st century lynch mobs. Essentially, Twitter raises the all-important question of how to take responsibility for the things you say while dealing with the consequences of people who only see offense.
Is this just necessary collateral damage in the battle for freedom of speech? But the question remains: Through the murk of whatever Twitter is now, how did it get so big in the first place?
The fifth estate
Before Twitter, there was a distance between celebrities and fans. Mediated by professional writers and their editors, publishers, and media moguls, you had to read what your favorite singers or actors were chatting about in magazines. Tweeting bridged this gap and suddenly the most mundane thoughts and throwaway musings could be consumed by whoever wanted to follow.
And that was the hook. The uninteresting ponderings tweeted out offered an intimacy never before experienced. But that’s just the start. Millennials and Gen Zs suffer more anxiety from the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) than any other generation in human civilization.
Twitter allows you to stay immersed in popular culture, news, gossip, academia, and current affairs while simultaneously being able to retweet things you’ve seen and liked. Twitter has totally revolutionized event planning, entertainment, marketing, customer service, brand reputations, and even activism.
Didn’t like the way the waiter addressed you in the restaurant? Tweet about it. Want to start a civil rights movement? Twitter’s your soapbox. It’s a much-needed platform for people who previously had nowhere to go. It democratizes speech as a whole.
But conversely, it’s the easy-come, easy-go, almost nonchalant attitude that makes Twitter so user-friendly. In an age where attention-spans have diminished into bite-size chunks and advertising is measured in seconds instead of minutes, Twitter doesn’t require you to write content or prose. You have 280 characters — upped recently from its famed 140 — to let the world know what’s popped into your head — and it doesn’t have to be profound.
With around 330 million people using Twitter around the world, tweeting (now a verb), has changed interaction forever. Only time will tell if it has a negative effect on spoken conversation. You can also look back in 2021, of the very first tweet NFT from Twitter founder, Jack Dorsey that sold for $2.5 million. And you can see the immense impact that Twitter has on society.
Today, it’s a case of tweeting to stay in touch. Another thirty years and it may be a case of “I tweet therefore I am”.
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