Twitter’s Fifth Year

Last Monday, Twitter celebrated its fifth birthday. In total, 200 million people use twitter. However, only 17 percent of those people actively use their accounts. Although it’s been a hugely successful venture in an incredibly short amount of time, Twitter is has been called a ‘one trick pony’ but Computerworld, and it’s not wrong. Even though people get annoyed with Facebook constantly changing, there’s a reason it’s so incredibly popular – because it has everything. Checking out someone’s Twitter doesn’t tell you the overwhelming basic things you need to know about them, but Facebook does. Personally, I know very few people that actually use twitter – but those that use it are completely addicted to it. It created a culture of ‘microblogging’ which is appealing due to the shortness and (recent) ability to do so on cell phones – so you can do it anywhere. You can even follow celebrities or politicians and see what they’re up to on a minute-by-minute basis – a seemingly close proximity to those that are so far out of reach.
So will it last? Look how Myspace turned out – a blip in social networking’s history. However, Twitter has flourished in an even more advanced technological era, and it has actually been an active tool in national events, such as the recent earthquake in Japan and other global issues, as it’s a ‘one – to – many’ version of communication – a couple words sum up anything you need to say, and you can get that information to hundreds of people in a matter of seconds. Top news groups such as the New York Times, CNN, and others have twitter accounts which they update regularly on a daily basis – so anything occurring of real importance is learned of immediately by those following.
            Nowadays, it’s the battle for the top social network – so many have come and gone, and Facebook seems like it’s here to stay, but will Twitter expand and take over? Or will something new come along and sweep both of them out of the water? We’ll have to wait until Twitter’s 10^th anniversary to find out.