{"id":81391,"date":"2016-03-23T11:42:46","date_gmt":"2016-03-23T16:42:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ict-pulse.com\/?p=81391"},"modified":"2017-04-07T19:37:15","modified_gmt":"2017-04-08T00:37:15","slug":"5-ways-twitter-changed-changed-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2016\/03\/5-ways-twitter-changed-changed-world\/","title":{"rendered":"5 ways Twitter has changed has changed the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

Launched on 21 March 2006, Twitter turned 10 years old this week. This post highlights some of the areas in which Twitter has made a lasting impact.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n


\nWhere would the world be without Twitter? Although Twitter\u2019s subscriber base, at over 320 million as at December 2015 (Source: <\/span>Twitter<\/span><\/a>), is less than a third that of Facebook, it is still a powerful and influential social network that – more than Facebook – has changed the way how we, globally, communicate. This year, and similar to YouTube, Twitter is celebrating its 10th anniversary; so it is opportune to reflect on how it has changed the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. \u00a0Succinct communication<\/span><\/h3>\n

To communicate successfully on Twitter, users must master condensing their messages to no more than 140 characters. In other words, brevity is key. Further that environment, specifically the Twitter news feed, has helped readers to develop the art of scanning and distilling copious amounts of information, which has become increasingly useful when the deluge of information that we receive daily is considered.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. \u00a0A news channel<\/span><\/h3>\n

As a medium that allows virtually instantaneous receipt of messages to all of a subscriber\u2019s followers, Twitter became the channel through which ordinary citizens shared what might be newsworthy situations and development that were happening around them. The importance of Twitter was clearly evident during demonstration and protests that started in December 2010 in Tunisia, and lasted through to around mid-2012: the Arab Spring.<\/span><\/p>\n

That approach contrasted with traditional news reporting agencies, which only disseminated stories through their own platforms and usually at specific times of the day. Hence Twitter sped up the flow of information by became the place to get the latest breaking news, thanks to subscriber postings, and not from formal news organisations. As a result, and to remain relevant, the latter have had to embrace Twitter as a critical information dissemination channel, and have tapped into the potential mainstream and newsworthy items that subscribers are also posting.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. \u00a0First responders assistance<\/span><\/h3>\n

Following from the previous point,Twitter has become a powerful channel to disseminate the latest developments in emergency and adverse situations. As a result, it has become a critical resource when coordinating first responders, especially when subscribers are in a position to the latest communicate first-hand, on the ground information.<\/span><\/p>\n

4. \u00a0Fostering the collective audience<\/span><\/h3>\n

Have you ever watched a popular television programme, such as Scandal, American Idol, The Voice, or the SuperBowl and tracked the activity on Twitter? Twitter has become the virtual watercooler, where as those events unfold, there is running commentary by subscribers, which not only entertains, but creates a collective (and loyal) audience that can complement the television viewing experience. Shows have tapped into those virtual communities by allow them to influence some of the show\u2019s outcomes, such as through voting via tweets. <\/span><\/p>\n

5. \u00a0Hashtags<\/span><\/h3>\n

Many people might not know this, but the use of hashtags (#), was not invented by Twitter. In fact, it originated in chat rooms: but Twitter made it not only mainstream, but essential when to tag or assign topics to posts, be they on Twitter or other popular social networks..<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Image credit: \u00a0SambaClub <\/a>(flickr)<\/em><\/p>\n

______________<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Launched on 21 March 2006, Twitter turned 10 years old this week. This post highlights some of the areas in which Twitter has made a lasting impact. Where would the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,33],"tags":[34,42,15,108],"class_list":["post-81391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-computing","category-lists","tag-lists-2","tag-social-media","tag-trends","tag-twitter","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Twitter-by-SambaClub-flickr.jpg?fit=500%2C375&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2iE1G-laL","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81391"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97021,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81391\/revisions\/97021"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}