Twitter as a Communications Technology

My Pinterest board entitled Twitter as a Communications Technology illustrates the use of Twitter as an influential communications technology tool.

In April of 2010 the US Library of Congress (LOC) and Twitter partnered to attempt to archive all tweets for future research purposes. Their original intent was "to create a structure for organizing the entire archive by date" (Allen, 2013). This linear approach has proven difficult as the information is indeterminately dynamic. The LOC faces the challenge the HUB model attempts to alleviate. 

Twitter as a communications technology tool is dynamic since through hashtags conversations can be had with multiple accounts regarding a single topic. The pathways of conversation are not linear. The hashtag also has the ability to reduce the six degrees of separation to a lesser number. In my Pinterest board through Twiplomacy (Lüfkens, 2015) and the history of Twitter I demonstrate the non-linear connectivity of Twitter as a communication technology.

[NOTE] I kept getting an error message when trying to post a comment with the following pin. This message was meant to go with my infographic on The History of Twitter: Communications and Technology.

In Tweet this: A uses and gratifications perspective on how active Twitter use gratifies
a need to connect with others Chen states, “Twitter evolved from an online application where users answered a simple question to a ‘’new economy of info-sharing and connectivity’ between people” (2010, pg. 755). I would argue Twitter went from a status sharing tool to an event sharing tool. It became so much more than a group texting technology initially designed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey to let your friends know where you are and what you’re up to. Twitter is now used to broadcast emergency information, document and engage in discourse about events which are history in the making as well as connecting with others. Gratifying a need for connection happens when people share an experience.

Allen, E. (2013). Update on the Twitter archive at the Library of Congress.

Retrieved from 
http://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2013/01/update-on-the-twitter-archive-at-the-library-of-congress/

Chen, M., G. (2011). Tweet this: A uses and gratifications perspective on how

active Twitter use gratifies a need to connect with others. Computers in Human Behavior, 27(2), 755–762. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2010.10.023

Findlay, K. (2010). An introduction to network theory. Retrieved from

http://www.slideshare.net/ervler/an-introduction-to-network-theory

Lüfkens, M. (2015, March 24). Twiplomacy Study 2015. Retrieved from 


http://twiplomacy.com/blog/twiplomacy-study-2015/