This week's assignments required me to spend a considerable amount of time on Twitter. The first time I had ever heard of Twitter was during a series of Iranian protests in 2009. At that time, Iran's presidential election had just ended with a result that looked very suspiciously rigged. This led to the people in Iran gathering in the streets to protest the election's result. As time went on, the government of Iran became increasingly violent to the protesters and eventually cut off a lot of communication with the outside world by blocking the major social media sites, but they forgot to block Twitter. After this happened, the only way for protesters to release information and for outside news agencies to receive information was through Twitter. Twitter's boost in notoriety led people around me to start opening Twitter accounts. However, I did not open a Twitter account myself because I thought Twitter was going to be just a fad and that there was no point in joining a social media site that was so obscure that the Iranian government forgot to block it off in the first place.
Since that time, Twitter has begun to grow in popularity. More and more businesses and public figures have begun to open Twitter accounts to promote themselves or share their thoughts on an issue. However, I still didn't see the point in opening a Twitter account because everything I would want to do on Twitter could already be accomplished using Facebook. The only time I'd even bother to look at Twitter was when news sources would cover a story and show some really offensive posts from some Twitter users. It slightly amused me to see some say something really offensive and then get verbally ripped apart in their comment section. It felt good to see people putting pressure on those who think it is entertaining to say hurtful things. However, for this class, I have ended up opening up my own Twitter account and putting some work into it.
While using Twitter, I've come to realize that there are people on Twitter that are not on Facebook. Therefore, using more than one form of social media is a good way to connect and network with most people. However, Twitter definitely is not Facebook. The host of a how-to video that I watched about Twitter recently said, "Facebook is for people you know and Twitter is for people you wish you knew." It makes sense for both of them to exist because they each serve a different purpose.
Throughout this week, I have had to learn and get used to using some of the different functions on Twitter like hash tags, the "at symbol," lists, following, and messaging people. So far, I don't have many people following me so I am not as motivated to post often on Twitter. However, I do wonder how some people who aren't public figures acquire so many followers. This week, one of the best ideas I came across from a fellow classmate was to use a Twitter account to keep the parents of my students updating, instead of writing a weekly bulletin. I can see how it would be much simpler to take a picture of a project we're working on or write a quick 140 character blurb a few times a week than to put together a whole news letter at the end of that week. I actually stopped writing newsletters a few years ago because I realized that parents weren't reading it but maybe if I use Twitter as a medium, the parents will be more likely to read about our activities. I don't know when, but one day I may give this a shot in my classroom.
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