BodiMojo Blog

By Remy Marin

The nominees for Time Magazine’s 2009 Most Influential People includes the regular slew of celebrities, politicians, and activists, blah blah blah.  But if you scroll just a little farther down, you’ll find that Twitter founders Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone, nicknamed “The Twitter Guys,” are holding a place as well.

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Twitter is a social networking site on which people – including celebrities and companies like BodiMojo – can write 140-character updates, or “Tweets,” about what they’re doing, what’s going on in the world, and their opinions about it all.  Twitter users, or “Tweeple,” can “follow” each other, which means that they will receive each other’s updates and can respond to them.  There’s really not much too it, but it seems that less is more as the Twitterverse has been booming and leaving Facebook behind.  A TechCrunch tracking has calculated that the amount of Twitter users increased 131 percent from this February to March alone, now reaching almost 10 million.

And this Twitter-mania isn’t just a matter of members.  “The Twitter Guys” Time Magazine nominee page notes that Twitter has become a way to report and discuss major events as they happen.  On April 17, Ashton Kutcher became the first Twitter user to have one million followers on Twitter.  On a live stream video, Ashton said of this accomplishment, “This is a huge statement for social media. For one person to actually have the ability to broadcast to as many people as a major media network, sort of signifies the turning of the tide from traditional news outlets to social news outlets.”  He continued, “We actually become the source of the news, the broadcasters of the news, and the consumers of the news. It’s sort of power to the people and I like that, a lot.”

So people are becoming the source of media?  How does that work?  One blogger named Brian Solis breaks it down: “With every tweet and update, we reveal a bit of what we stand for and what moves us, forming a unique social graph that contextually connects us to others in an irreproducible network. We become media.  We become influencers.”

While it’s pretty cool, this whole “we are the media” thing may just seem like a passing fad.  But ZDNet has analyzed the usage of Twitter and various other news sources, and their results show that the increase in the use of Twitter has led to a decrease in the use of traditional news sources such as CNN and Yahoo! News.

And Twitter’s effect goes even further.  The decrease in popularity of these traditional news sites has driven them to join Twitter as well, throwing their own Tweets into the mix.  So every time you log onto Twitter, you receive not only personal updates, but also official news and worldwide reactions to it.  Now that is what I call efficient.

Up until now, I’ve been a pro-Facebook person, so I was a bit hesitant about the whole Twitter thing.  But a little over a month ago, I decided to take a deep breath and give Twitter a try.  What’s my verdict?  Twitter wins it all, and here’s why.

First off all, Facebook is diluted by pointless applications, advertisements, and spam.  These annoyances make it impossible to just quickly check messages or tell a friend something without getting distracted. Twitter, on the other hand, is just quick and straightforward.  It doesn’t waste time.

Second, Facebook is really personal.  You are asked about your age, sexuality, religion, political views, and hometown.  Everything you do on Facebook is announced, and you can never be sure who will see what. On Twitter, however, you are only asked to give your name and a quick summary of your personality, and you know what is being broadcast and to whom.

Third, Facebook is socially limiting.  You friend only who you know in order to maintain safety and some privacy.  Twitter, on the other hand, allows for a lot more wiggle room.  Since you do not publish much personal information, the anonymity puts everyone on an even playing field.  You can talk to your favorite actor or debate with someone from across the world about who should be nixed from American Idol. 

It’s true that Twitter is just a social networking site.  But a little birdie told me that it is far surpassing other social networking sites in its influence on the media.  So, if you haven’t flown into the Twitterverse just yet, spread your wings and give it a fly – I mean try.

For more information, check out Twitter itself.  You can also add your own voice by voting in the Time Magazine poll or tweeting BodiMojo or me at Memy18.

Remy Marin is a Boston-area high school sophomore who is interested in humanities and foreign languages.  In her spare time she loves to compete in forensics, dance, and spend time with her friends, sister – and hamster!