Sign of the Times
Trendy Twitter more than 'mini-blogs'
Lately, Twitter has been mentioned often, and it is, like blogs a few years ago, all the rage for those who are in the know. It appears, though, that quite a few people don't know what it is, so I'd like to take the opportunity here to talk about the Internet's newest trend.
In Japanese newspapers, Twitter has been characterized as "mini-blogs." Yes, blogs and Twitter are both forums where people post their personal writings. And since the length of each utterance -- or "Tweet" -- is limited to a maximum of 140 characters, it is not surprising that some would define Twitter as a mini-blog.
Additionally, because Twitter is the name of a specific communication service provided by Twitter Inc, newspapers may have a reason to use a general noun such as "blog" for reasons of fairness. For the record, Twitter is an American-style free membership service and had not turned a profit until just recently through syndication deals.
The question is this: does the term "mini-blog" get across the real nature of this service? No. In fact, blogs and Twitter differ fundamentally in their architecture. Because blogs are designed to foster communication between authors and readers, they can become hotbeds of malicious comments and never-ending heated arguments. Social networking services (SNS), which allow access only to invited readers, subsequently appeared on the scene, but they have been criticized for being "too closed," and careless users have been known to cause trouble for large numbers of people even in the SNS setting.
Twitter is the response to consumer demands for a large forum in which to broadcast one's ideas and fostering ties with like-minded people, without having to put up with unpleasant responses. One can follow Tweets or conduct word searches even without registering with Twitter. In this sense, it is an open forum not unlike blogs.
However, responding to a Tweet requires member registration. And once one is registered, it is possible to designate one's favorite Tweeters and have all their Tweets appear at any time in chronological order.
Merely following Tweets without writing any oneself is entertaining. After all, huge quantities of information -- from Tweets ostensibly written by the U.S. president and top celebrities to discount information at supermarkets -- are available on Twitter.
Of course, one can also send out Tweets. The more appealing the content, the more followers one acquires. Tweeters are kept abreast of the number of users following their Tweets, which can be an encouraging factor. But without the first few followers, whether they be friends or acquaintances, the chain of followers fails to expand. In this, Twitter resembles SNS.
In Twitter, comments posted by mutual followers show up on the chronological list of one another's Tweets. In such cases, the comments from both Tweeters show up for users who are following both parties, but not for users who are only following just one of them.
As a matter of fact, comments by non-mutual followers are searchable. However, because Tweeters with a major following rarely go to the trouble of seeking such input, "vandalism" caused by outrageous responses simply goes unnoticed and stays at a minimum.
Twitter's simple operational rules make it useful for notice boards for social clubs and associations, forums for wide-ranging discussion, publicity for private corporations and politicians, sending out personal opinions and ideas into the world, and gathering information. Without a priori design, Twitter organizes involved parties based on the nature of communication and topics discussed.
Twitter makes it nearly impossible to receive malicious comments from third parties and easy to connect with people one wishes to. If relations sour in the middle of a Twitter relationship, users can be blocked, which erases their comments from one's page.
Another key factor is the 140-character limit. Just as there have been examples of private corporations finding success through daily reports that similarly placed a cap on the number of characters used, the character limit encourages summing up one's thoughts effectively. It prevents the slow down of discussion due to incompetent, drawn-out writing. This character limit is ideal for exchanging utterances using mobile terminals. A new culture of sending and receiving short utterances in real time emerged from this restriction on Tweet length.
Indeed, Twitter has become truly "ubiquitous," giving rise to comical and tragic cases in the U.S. in which a groom Tweeted from the altar to say that he was exchanging rings with the bride, and a would-be thief was apprehended for Tweeting about his robbery-in-action.
There have been reports that 20 percent of Twitter users were Japanese even before the Japanese language service was offered. The Japanese seem to love this type of communication environment where a friend of a friend of a friend can become a "friend" and one can screen undesired parties from becoming a "friend" also.
I imagine it will not be long before Japanese newspaper headlines read: "Thief Tweets While Thieving" or "Tokyo Resident Continues to Tweet as Home is Robbed." And by then, we will no longer need the descriptive "mini-blog" when we talk about Twitter. (By Ken Sakamura, professor of Applied Computer Science at the University of Tokyo)
Click here for the original Japanese story
(Mainichi Japan) January 10, 2010