So when I got a Twitter account a little over a year ago I really enjoyed it. And then I fell out of love it. I started missing facebook and all its wonderful features. Well over the past few months the fiery passion in my loins for Twitter has been reignited. I will try to briefly explain why I really enjoy Twitter and its distinct advantages over Facebook. I will also try to cover some of its downsides.
Followers > Friends:
So I looked at the number of friends I had on Facebook two weeks ago. 320. after about a half hour of combing through folks I cut that down to 260. Not bad, but I still had 260 friends. Many of them are people I dont talk to but their pictures still end up in my newsfeed. Along with their status updates, news of who they just became friends with, wall posting and their invitations to events that I have zero intention of attending. I could unfriend them but there is always that hesitation. "What if they notice?" "But they are still friends with one of these other people I still talk to." So on and so forth.
Just last night a student asked me to be her friend on facebook. I have nothing against her and I dont mind if she has access
to my page, but I dont want access to her's and I dont want to be bombarded with her news and updates. I dont want to commit to a "relationship" that I dont
want just so she can see my dang news feed. Twitter solves this problem for me. If she were on Twitter she could simply follow me and that would be that. I would have one new follower but I wouldn't be forced to "follow" her. None of her tweets would show up on my feed stream and I could go on living my life. If for whatever reason I needed to block her later on I could totally do that.
While Facebook forces you into a shotgun type wedding with people, Twitter allows you to casually keep tabs with people you care about without forcing them to do anything they don't want to do.
My Friends, My News
Facebook is great because it lets me keep up with my friends (and as I mentioned above, keeps me updated with people I dont care about). But facebook rarely keeps me informed. I love reading the news, following the latest on my latest sports teams, getting the 411 on upcoming tech gadgets. But I get none of that on Facebook. Before I maximized my twitter experience I would have to skim facebook to see if there was anything I cared about and then go onto Google Reader (which is an RSS feed page that collects new stories from different websites and media outlets that I subscribe to). While Google Reader is helpful because it collects all the news that I ask for and care about it takes several steps to get to the actual article to read it. I have to click on the media "LA Times Front Page" for example.
Then I see all the articles. I click on one and I see a preview page. Then I have to click on the preview page in order to open up the actual article.Twitter solves this for me too. It combines following my friends and getting my news. I merely follow different news agencies and websites and i get their updates (which include links to their articles) in real time. Plus I get the added benefit of also getting my friend's updates from the same place.
I can give a great example of this from today. When Conan O'Brien released his press release regarding his future at NBC I got immediate info from Twitter (three articles from three different media outlets). From Facebook: nada. I have friends who I know love Conan but there were no updates or links to the latest info. Or when the earthquake hit Hati. Some people mentioned it in wall posts but there was no actual info. With Twitter I get the news and my friend's reactions. Advantage: Twitter.
How Twitter Can Get Better:
Photos: Twitter does a good job of letting you post photos (usually the mobile kind) to your page. There are times where I wish it could have a photo album type function but I doubt it will. There are times when Dana White (President of the Ultimate Fighting Championship) posts pics of fighters getting ready in their locker rooms. But there are so many that it kinda bombards your news feed (though that can be fixed with the use of Lists - which I wont go into here). Anyway, at least in this aspect I say Facebook has a hand up on its competition but its not a deal breaker for me.
Who Uses Twitter: I am of the age that most of my friends started using Facebook during their college years. They are now in their late twenties and for them Facebook IS social networking. Add that to the fact that people mock Twitter and many of them are reluctant to join. Many people argue that Twitter is just filled with people giving piffy comments and stupid updates. To them I say, "yea and how is Facebook different...?". Twitter is the new kid on the block and a lot of my friends are set in their ways but I hope that more and more people will see Twitter as a way to start clean on the internet and as a better way to keep and touch and get the news/info they care about.
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