Twitter in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.
By Matthew Gillis
Since I began “tweeting” in May 2011, I’ve grown to like Twitter (despite much uncertainty). My first hesitation stemmed from the content that many people post on the site. I’m not a fan of hearing about how much laundry you have on Facebook, so why would I want to see it on Twitter?
But I think that’s what makes Twitter so intriguing. In “Future of Social Media: Is a Tweet the New Size of a Thought,” Julian Dibbell describes Twitter’s format as a type of microblogging, in which people publish steady streams of one-line updates.
What makes a successful blog is one that incorporates aspects of one’s daily 
thoughts, struggles, and triumphs, and I see that style taken with Twitter. Twitter users approach the site as a diary, publishing honest and vulnerable content that doesn’t aim to seek any rewards, which contrasts much of users’ goals on Facebook, where one updates his or her status in hopes of accumulating a high number of “likes.” I find Twitter’s sincerity to be refreshing.
Because Twitter lacks a feature like Facebook’s “like” button, users aren’t reassured that followers are reading their content. I find myself publishing random information about my day that I don’t even bother telling my closest friends, not knowing who (if anyone) is reading it.
Twitter favors anonymity, which I believe also encourages the truthfulness (however bleak or brutal) of users’ updates. Dibbell quotes Farhad Manjoo, who sees an unknown risk to Twitter: “I think there’s a question whether Twitter is going to be the thing everybody does…” I think that being able to use a fake username or profile image downplays Twitter’s competitive advantage in the world of social networking and cautions many from using the site.
However, I believe Twitter’s advantage lies in this idea of users’ content being “random, fleeting observations,” as Dibbell describes it. Users have the ability to publish what they feel at the exact moment they feel it; Twitter is a real time diary. In an age of shared thinking, Twitter capitalizes on no longer being alone in our own thoughts and allows people to form strong connections with those they “follow.”
Twitter’s success lies on one basic and human feeling: there’s comfort in knowing that you’re not alone.
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Follow me on Twitter: @MatthewTGillis
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