With the development of the Information Age came the fundamental shift from an industry based economy to one that relies on information technology, thus creating a distinction between the two historical points in human history. While the information age focused on innovating technology to create an efficient society, it also introduced certain technological systems, which were designed for the purpose of enhancing advancements in popular culture. Amongst these broad developments in technological systems was the contribution of social media to society. With the development of social media proposing distinct features for different purposes, attention is brought to a particular social media platform developed in 2006 known as Twitter. Twitter is one of the most popular social media platforms today, presents a modern design in which reflects the Information Age while directly relating to its role in society. With the development of Twitter came various purposes in association to it.
The Information Age is relationally correlated with the Digital Revolution, during which developmental industries evolved into formal electronic based systems. Within the Information Age came the development of various forms of technologically advanced markets. In association to the Information Age and the distinct advancements in technology creating a more efficient society, began one of the most popular developments in regards to social media known as Twitter. Twitter was first developed in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams. This new social media platform gained immense popularity when launched due to its excessive motion of perpetrating individuals to speak and communicate freely. The development of Twitter presents distinct aspects in association to the Information Age. One of the principal purposes of Twitter about the Information Age was due to its enhancements of political platforms. Twitter is a place where people can freely expose their opinions on practically anything they please. With its sole purpose being constant updates on societal issues such as ongoing wars, and political conflicts Twitter has developed into becoming an information providing platform. This ranks its use of correlating to all aspects of the Information Age.
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It is imperative to note that since its launch in 2006, Twitter has evolved from its niche service to a mass phenomenon that is utilized across the globe. One of the major role or use of Twitter is for communication. Alterman asserts that “The most important role may be enabling people to see themselves as activists creating content” (106). People residing in different places can communicate faster through the social platform. In essence, the communication process is called twitting, and the message sends a tweet. Secondly, Twitter plays a crucial role in political debates and discussions. The recently concluded US elections saw Twitter play a significant role. Firstly, the platform was used by each candidate to seek votes. As well, the site was used by political analysis and citizens to critic or supports the manifestos of the candidates. As a result of such study, people could access the best candidate and thus make the practical decision to vote for them.
The business as well has not be left behind. Companies that have leveraged technology use Twitter as a marketing tool for their products and services. Vaidhyanathan argues that “The Internet has been remarkably effective in for distributing materials cheaply and quickly” (201). As such, there are several reasons businesses use Twitter today. One of the most significant reasons is that Twitter has several registered users. These users are the potential customers for the company products and services. In that connection, the business focuses on marketing their products to a large number of potential clients. In addition to the above, research reveals that Twitter offers a cheaper alternative to market the goods and services of a company. Thus, this means that the business saves a lot by using Twitter as a marketing tool. Hence, it is clear that Twitter provides a cheaper alternative for the company to market their products.
According to Blankespoor, there are several problems that Twitter was created to solve (80). Firstly, Twitter was designed to share experiences with people like friends and family instantly. As well, these experiences can be shared in a summary. This is mainly because the platform only allows the user to type a maximum of 140 characters per tweet. The majority of the social networks like Facebook provide the user with the opportunity to post unlimited characters. As such, this may be considered as boring since the intended people reading the message may not read the whole text. In addition to the above, Twitter is far much faster as compared to other social media platforms. Twitter also enables individuals to notify friends what they are doing, get popular, know what the people are doing, and know the critical topics being discussed at a time. All these can be achieved instantaneously. Thus, it is precise that Twitter was created to solve the speed required in sharing experiences through social media platforms.
The position of Twitter is dependent on the majority shareholders. Ev Williams, the co-founder, and director of the company, owns 43.70% of the shares. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, CEO Kingdom Holding company, owns 34.90% while Steve Ballmer owns 27.30% of the shares. One of the most crucial issues that Twitter seems to assume about the impact of technology o society is the effect of speed on security. Twitter provides an instant post of the contented provided by the user. The challenge is that this may be an issue when it comes to security matters. This is mainly because the platform can be used to spread threats and propaganda.
- Alterman, Jon B. “The revolution will not be tweeted.” The Washington Quarterly 34.4 (2011): 103-116.
- Blankespoor, Elizabeth, Gregory S. Miller, and Hal D. White. “The role of dissemination in market liquidity: Evidence from firms’ use of Twitter™.” The Accounting Review 89.1 (2013): 79-112.
- Vaidhyanathan, Siva. The Googlization of everything and why we should worry. University of California Press, 2012.
