NickGeidner.com

Ok, I have now been twittering for about a month and a half and I think I am finally getting a hold of it. Let start with stats:

Following: 51
Followers: 51
Posts: 278

I am still not sure about it in general. I know a lot of people are using it and I know a lot of people swear by it, but I am not yet convinced. Here is what I am sure of:

• Twitter like most social media strengthens weak ties. For instance, I have noticed I talk a lot more to a number of people I would consider weak ties in my life. This is because I see them on my Twitter feed. Social media, unlike all previous media, allows us to see our whole social networks, so weak ties are less likely to become latent ties.
• I have found it easier to interact with new people on Twitter than on previous social media (e.g., Facebook), but this might be skewed. As I have said, a lot of people in my social network are not on Twitter. Since I still wanted to play with Twitter I actively sought out new people to talk to. But beyond this I also think the short 140 character message is a lot less threatening.

So anyway those are my two thoughts of the day. I also have had a number of people within my social network join Twitter over the last week or two, so this might affect my usage.

I have also been rethinking about a few concepts or theories and their relation to online communities. The first is synchronicity. Internet communications has variable levels of synchronicity. Chatroom and chat clients of nearly synchronous communication forms. E-mail or this blog represents more non-synchronous forms of communication. The level of synchronicity in a communication should moderate the relationship between the communication and a number of variables (Thanks, M. Beam). Also, I have been thinking about mass vs. interpersonal communication on the Internet and how that is a very gray area. Lastly, I have beenn thinking about the “broken window theory” as a way to explain the collapse of online communities.

Nick Uncategorized Twitter