by Aziza Ahmad

As far as social networking goes, each new site makes it quicker and easier to communicate with friends, family, co-workers, and anyone else. The newest rising site, Twitter, does just that. Twitter is similar in design to Facebook, which has grown very popular among high school and college students and working adults alike. Facebook’s popular feature, the “status update” that allows users to post what they are doing at any moment, is Twitter’s central feature. While Facebook has status updates in addition to photos, videos, instant messaging, and other applications, Twitter’s focus is only on the status updates (called “tweets”) that users update often several times within the hour. The Twitter outbreak is spreading, but will it ever gain a large following amongst high schoolers? And is this minimalist form of networking better or worse?

Before investigating these questions, the discrepancies between Twitter and the form of networking that MySpace and Facebook have us familiar with must be known. Twitter is unique in that there are no “friends,” but “followers,” and you can follow someone else without them following you.

In fact, many celebrities have Twitter pages and any member can follow them without personally knowing them. Their interactions with the public are now on a more personal level; many famous users (including John Mayer, Ashton Kutcher, and Demi Moore) tweet on the hour. Well-known journalists of the late have also been taking time to advertise their Twitter pages.

Politicians and senators have been Tweeting as well. During President Barack Obama’s first address to Congress, many senators were posting Tweets while he was talking. The media and several Twitter users responded negatively to this, criticizing the fact that their attention was directed toward Twitter and not the president’s address.

Because of this, Twitter has attracted more older members than younger. Working adults are more likely to engage in the easy to use Twitter than high school students who find more entertainment in the wide variety of things to do on Facebook or MySpace. Twitter does not have features to upload photo albums, zombie attack friends, add layouts, or post 25 random things about yourself; but the fact that kids are not attracted by Twitter may be a good thing.

In 140 characters, Tweets can get you into a lot of trouble. It is always important to think before speaking, but Twitter does not allow much of a thought process. It goes inside the user’s head so that anyone can follow his or her stream of conscious. Everyone contemplates personal problems or has those moments where they think “I really hate (person/thing’s name.),” in their head, but on Twitter these random thoughts are typed out and posted as soon as they arise. Post something like this without thinking and the damage is done and irreparable. 

For example, in February, Representative from Michigan, republican Pete Hoekstra, risked his safety by Tweeting, “Moved into green zone by helicopter Iraqi flag now over palace. Headed to new US embassy Appears calmer less chaotic than previous here,” while in Iraq (MSNBC). This potentially deadly post severely risked both his safety and the safety of his traveling party.

Employees have lost their jobs from posting negative things about their bosses. Employers, teachers, friends, family, and anyone can read your Twitter page, and caution must be exercised when updating. With a Facebook page, it takes a while for your mom or college admissions boards to track down that picture of you playing beer pong from last August; and you can always just “un-tag” yourself or restrict/limit your profile. With a Twitter page, your post about how hard you’re partying can be read in half a second. Posts can be deleted, but once they have been read, the damage is done.

It can be detrimental and even dangerous to put too much information out on any social networking site, but it can be argued that Twitter goes further in breaching personal privacy. It can only be hoped that the high school student crowd will exercise good judgment if and when they jump on the Twitter train.