Twitter - The Social Media of Many Faces

Twitter is a social media platform typically thought of being used for just that - socializing. However, the use of Twitter has greatly expanded. People have Twitter for personal use, to promote/advertise a business, to share media, to give reviews, and even to receive news. Twitter has been used to organize protests, to give first hand accounts of events, to raise money for causes, and to aid in emergency response situations. Twitter can be a great tool for journalists, as it is filled with information. However, not all of the information on Twitter, or any social media platform for that matter, is true. This is why it is so important to check all facts and sources. Twitter is also helpful to journalists in that statements are often made by officials or celebrities via Twitter so that is another way to get information or some form of a comment. Twitter is also a helpful political tool because politicians are able to hear from and interact with constituents as well as releasing information quickly and efficiently. Twitter can be used as an organizational tool as well, as it was in Egypt. Through twitter a person can find other people or groups that align with what they are passionate about. This can make it very easy to set up meetings, protests, campaigns, or fundraisers. Twitter is an easy way to spread the word and find those peoples of common interests.

 On April 15th, 2019 the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris caught fire. This caught the attention of people all over the world. Twitter was utilized here to raise awareness as well as money. Celebrities, elected officials, and everyday people took to Twitter to express support and help raise money. One billion dollars was raised to restore the Cathedral. The 2019/2020 Australian bushfire season was perhaps the worst Australia had seen. The situation worsened significantly in November of 2019. The situation only began to alleviate in January of 2020, and that was only slightly. More than 46 million acres of land were burned and more than a billion animals died in these fires. This was a very popular topic on Twitter at the time, and many hashtags related to this topic were trending. While twitter did aid in increasing awareness, that was about all that it did. This was a hot topic, but after a while the attention died down and the focus was shifted. Here twitter did help to inform but there was no more beyond that. The Coronavirus, which has taken the world by storm, has also been a hot topic on Twitter. People have taken to the social media platform to share experiences, tips, and concerns. Officials have taken to Twitter to issue statements and order. Celebrities and influencers are using Twitter to share their wealth with those less fortunate that have been affected by the virus. One example is Youtuber and business owner Jefree Star. Star took to Twitter to give away $30,000 to support fans through loss of income due to the virus. 

For my COM336 Twitter project I chose to follow three very different accounts to follow and a subject that was unrelated. For the three accounts I chose Senator Bernie Sanders, rapper and actor Ice-T, and the makeup brand NYX. Senator Sanders is a popular democratic candidate, and the one that most aligned with my personal views, so I thought that this would be a good opportunity to keep up to date with the candidate and the presidential election itself. I chose to follow Ice-T because I wanted a celebrity that I knew little to nothing about. I knew Ice-T strictly from his acting career, so I thought this would be a chance to learn more about him and his values. NYX was an obvious choice. I am an avid makeup user and collector. While I quite enjoy makeup, I do not follow every brand or know when they release new products. By following NYX’s Twitter account I was able to see products in use, and see any announcements made by the company. For my subject for 10 tweets I chose to discuss movies. The reason I chose this is because at the beginning of this quarantine I spent a good chunk of my newly free time watching movies, so I had a fresh memory and a lot to say. 

My experience with Twitter has been quite different from my experience with blogging. Twitter is far more widespread and much less formal. Blogs are made by people who care about something enough to write about it on a large scale. However, because tweets are so short and so common people are able to tweet an opinion or thought they may have in mere seconds. Because it is so easy, I found that the content was much more mixed. Twitter is truly a unique platform.