It’s everywhere. On your phone, on your computer, it’s probably even in your classes. No matter which way you turn, college kids can’t escape social networking. And why would we want to? Social networking is an easy and fun way to catch up with friends, meet new people, and kill some down time. In fact, 89 percent of people aged 18-34 use social media websites, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
It’s no surprise that Facebook is the major player in the social media world. You’d be hard pressed to find a Michigan State University student who doesn’t use Facebook daily, and good luck trying to find one that doesn’t have a page at all. As of 2011, Facebook has over 800 million active users, and it’s safe to assume that the popular social networking service isn’t going anywhere fast.
Despite Facebook’s power house status, other social networking sites are slowly but surely creeping into college student’s daily lives. As more and more college students make the change from Facebook to Twitter, it’s becoming impossible to ignore the micro-blog’s increasing popularity. 18 percent of Americans aged 18-29 reported using Twitter on a regular basis in 2011, a 2 percent increase from 2010.
It may not seem like a lot when you look at the percentage numbers, but rest assured Twitter isn’t going anywhere: 3 years, 2 months and 1 day is the amount of time it took from the very first Tweet in 2006 to the billionth Tweet in 2009, according to Twitter’s own statistics. Now, it only takes one week for Twitter users to tweet a billion Tweets, and the pace is growing steadily. There has been a 182 percent increase in the number of mobile Twitter users in the last year.
Not bad, Twitter. But what is causing this rapid migration to Twitter? It seems there’s some social networking needs Facebook just can’t satisfy, and that’s where Twitter comes in.
A more jovial crowd
“Facebook has just become this place where people complain,” MSU media arts and technology major Rebecca Mitchell said. “It’s becoming less fun.”
“Twitter is faster than Facebook,” MSU journalism sophomore Jacqueline Dumbleton said. “It’s just more fun, and people’s Tweets are usually more humorous than their status updates.”
Dumbleton said she updates her Twitter far more often that she updates her Facebook because of the difference in standards of the sites.
“I’ll update my Twitter like three or four times a day, compared to Facebook, which I update once or twice a month,” she said, because Twitter users expect that kind of update frequency, as where Facebook users would probably get annoyed.
Amber Kronemeyer, a sophomore math major, said she uses Twitter to follow celebrities , which is a feature Facebook doesn’t allow her to do.
“You can ‘Like’ the celebrities on Facebook, but it isn’t the same as following them,” she said. “Twitter is way better for following celebrities.
Mitchell also said she uses Twitter to follow people she can’t necessarily connect with on Facebook, like her favorite sports stars.
“I do most of my friend stuff on Facebook, but on Twitter I can connect with hockey players, which Facebook wouldn’t allow me to do,” Mitchell said.
Amber Kronemeyer said a big part of her decision to sign up for Twitter came from the fact that more and more of her friends were signing up.
And these three ladies are quite right- Twitter’s 140 character limit make Twitter a much more fast paced environment, which usually leads to short, funny or quirky Tweets, as where a Facebook status update can be paragraphs long. Also, the way in which Twitter allows you to connect with people like celebrities and sports stars is much more interactive than ‘liking’ a page on Facebook- on Twitter, you can connect and actually communicate with your favorite celebs.
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Not your grandma’s social networking site
Mitchell, Dumbleton and Kronemeyer all agreed that a big reason they went to Twitter was the “infiltration” of older people on Facebook.
“I got Twitter because I have family members on my Facebook, and there’s just somethings you don’t want to post where they can see it,” Kronemeyer said. “But with Twitter, it’s smaller and less people are on it, so I can post that stuff anyway.
The girl’s concerns don’t come unsupported: 53.6 percent of Facebook users are over the age of 26, according to Facebook’s own statistics, and that number is growing. Of course, it’s not a great idea to be constantly posting pictures of yourself that your mom wouldn’t be proud of on Facebook, but there’s going to be times you want to bring up inside jokes or relationship drama that you just might not want your older family members to see.
“Twitter is a smaller community, my parent’s aren’t on it, and I just feel more free to express myself on Twitter,” Mitchell said.
“Twitter is a little harder to understand and use, it’s not as user friendly as Facebook, so I don’t think it would appeal to many parents,” Kronemeyer said.
Not quite ready to let go
Despite the positives about Twitter, most people just aren’t ready to let go of Facebook yet.
“I like to look at people’s pictures on Facebook,” Kronemeyer said. “It’s not really that easy to do on Twitter, and people don’t really post as many.”
“I still like Facebook better, but I’m still new to Twitter, so I don’t know, maybe that will change after I figure out more and more ways to use Twitter,” Mitchell said. “I know my friends are on Facebook, and I know exactly how to find them.
For Dumbleton, it was a tie: “I like Facebook, but there’s only so much you can do on it,” she said. “On Twitter, you can literately read Tweets from everybody around the world. Just click a trending topic and you’re good to go.”