A lot of celebrities, news outlets, tv shows, companies and the like have a twitter account to keep their followers abreast of whatever it is they are doing or want to advertise at 140 characters per tweet. They use this as a marketing ploy like all other social media sites out there.
Twitter is unique with this 140 character limit. It means you have to get creative in one blast or else the tweet falls flat. Some accounts are funny and witty while others are just plain stupid. They say the most inane things like"I'm going to the mall" or "Need the bathroom ASAP". Segue: Why the heck would people want to know if you are going to the bathroom or what you're doing at 8:30 in the morning?! Nobody wants to know that! It is just way too much information for the public but they people will keep on following. Oh and don't tweet while driving. You might die from it. I am not kidding. At all.
There are worthwhile users for twitter also. CNN uses it for breaking news and to get reactions from viewers. Restaurants use it to give locations on where their food truck is going to be that day. You've got product launches, gossip alerts, monster sightings... you get the idea.
And then comes the Pope! He just made his first tweet on an Ipad and it garnered headlines from all over the world. Imagine the man pushing that "tweet" button and then sending a message to the virtual world. Pretty historic, huh? Well, I'm not a tweeter or whatever the kids call it but I thought that was a smart move for the church. It is an old institution that could benefit greatly by entering the digital world. I wonder if the PR guys were nervous to ask Benedict himself to type the tweet for the Vatican. This brings attention and novelty back to the Vatican and all with that one tweet. Social media is indeed changing the times and bringing the old back to the mainstream.
There is a ripple effect with every new piece of information out there and it is interesting how the social theorists could integrate everything into a coherent whole. It can even change laws and governments very much as what happened with the Arab spring. So what else can social media bring back to the table in terms of law? New rules on arrest warrants and search and seizure? Supreme Court announcements binding on the public? We have a rapidly changing world and keeping up with it will be exhausting and amazing. Just ask the Pope.
Entry #3 Abigail Alameda
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