What's All the Tweet About?

By Michael Devane
Managing Editor
Posted 4-7-09

Move over Facebook and MySpace, there is a new social networking tool in town, and it shows no signs of slowing down.

Officially launched in 2006, Twitter’s popularity exploded and has snowballed ever since.  The online sensation is a micro-blogging website and has claimed the likes of John Mayer, Mark Cuban and more members of Congress than you could name.

Kanye West pays someone to Twitter for him, Charlie Villanueva of the Milwaukee Bucks is known to Twitter fans during halftime of a game, and most recently, Demi Moore reportedly talked someone out of suicide by way of tweets.

According to the official Twitter website, it is a service meant to answer one simple question; what are you doing?  Each tweet can be no more than 140 characters in length.  The concept behind Twitter is to share with others bite-size pieces of information about you that may not require an email or a phone call.

Mary Tripp, senior lecturer of public relations at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, uses Twitter some and says that it can be a very useful tool.  “I have friends across the country; this can allow me to stay updated on what is going on in their lives.”

But Twitter is certainly not just limited to individuals.  Companies, organizations and publications are utilizing Twitter as well.  The Washington Post, UW-Madison, Dell Computers and even the UW-Superior’s Jim Dan Hill Library are Twittering.

One recent UWS JDHL tweet read, “Stop in at the library in RSC and help select chairs for the renovated library. Your comments are greatly appreciated.”

“I’m not always able to update the library’s blog right away so this is a good way to get quick, important pieces of information,” says Kristen Lindquist an Associate Research Specialist with the JDHL.  She registered the library on Twitter in February and although there are only four followers, Lindquist admits that she is excited.  “When I saw that four people signed up, I was happy.  It’s a start.”

Twitter has grown at a rapid pace since its inception.  According to Computerworld, a technology news publication, Twitter has over 6 million users and is expanding by about 750 more users per day.

But some are beginning to ask whether Twitter and other social networks that have begun to serve as standard modes of communication go too far. In several courtrooms across the country, jurors have been discovered twittering about the trial they are a part of.  Courtney Love, go figure, officially became the first celebrity to be sued over her Twitter comments about clothing designer Simorangkir.

“Historically part of the core definition of interpersonal communication includes face to face,” says Martha Einerson, Chair of the UWS Communicating Arts Department and Professor of Speech.  “Scholars are now rethinking that.  I know that online social networking helps create community.”

Einerson also points out that there are issues involved in social networking such as online bullying.  “When they are anonymous, some people are more likely to be aggressive,” noted Einerson.  “Empathy, civility and respect are still core ethics in communication.  Regardless of the channel, whether it is electronically, face to face or over the telephone, how we treat others really counts in our communication.”