Twitter is a great communication site for following friends, institutions and other important figures. It helps me to communicate with friends, teachers, other members of my class/group and institutions. Twitter is also a great platform for institutions to publicise their news, celebrities to give gossip and people to find out what'd is happening globally.
There are unique benefits to all types of social media
Twitter: Instant, short and snappy. The imposed word limit leads to soundbites of information, which means that people are more creative in the way they say things and can include weblinks (a shorter version appears). This use of social media tends to be used to provoke interest which will usually lead to further investigation on the web for more detail, it is also a great way for bands to put out snippets of information to their fanbase.
For my own enjoyment and also for my media work, I am following a number of bands and institutions to make sure I get up-to-the-minute news and updates
The Guardian music page sums up Twitter in its strapline: 'Squashing music into 140 characters since 2008'.
Twitter has flourished since many more people have smartphones, like Blackberry and iPhone because tweets can come in like texts so people are constantly abreast of the news feeds. They can also investigate interesting tweets immediately by accessing the internet on their smartphone.
This constant access to up-to-the-minute messages has had a drastic effect on youth culture. At its best, it keeps people in touch and informed while they are on the move - a truly mobile media resource; at its worst, the London riots of August 2011 would not have flared as quickly or as far as they did as Twitter and BBM (Blackberry messaging) provided the rioting youths with a means of instant communication.
There is a new development in Twitter that follows trends and peaks of interest in certain areas by use of a hash code to draw attention to a particular word or phrase.
