Tweet Tweet!

Is your life so boring that you consider John Doe going to brush his teeth news? Twitter is "a real time connection network that connects people to the latest information," according to its About Us section. Unfortunately, Twitter has forced its 175 million users since July 15^th, 2006 to statistically more see mediocre and insignificant personal comments than public news. Although Twitter is used by most of its users as a way to communicate the latest public news, others use the social network as a way for teenagers to self-vent, harass, and look for attention. In fact, according to CNET news, most Americans do not even use Twitter. In a recent survey done by CNET, only eight percent of online Americans use Twitter. Of that eight percent, 41% of those individuals check their site "less often [or] never." 

 

Pew internet, an internet "Fact Tank," constructed a recent study on Twitter. After analyzing Twitter's regular users, only 55 percent of these individuals share links to news stories on their pages. However, a whopping 72 percent of these same individuals post updates about their personal lives or interests regularly. Mr. Darren Rowse, 38, the creator of TwiTip, a respected website that helps Twitter users enhance their Tweeting experience, say that he uses Twitter as a source of world wide news. He says, “One of the things that I value very highly about Twitter is the way that it allows me to tap into an amazing community of people from around the world to find out what they are thinking, feeling and experiencing in different ways.” Ironically, barely half of the users on Twitter even use the social network for a source of News. Also, according to  READ WRITE WEB, of the 175 million users on Twitter, only 37% of active Twitter users use their phone to tweet. With such a small percentage of individuals actually connected to followers regularly, how much news is really getting out? If a majority of people on Twitter are tweeting about their own personal matters, there is a very small percentage of users who are actually communicating credible news. Frankly, teenage 'tweets' about Susie Smith getting a puppy are not considered news; therefore, Twitter users do not subscribe to these mediocre news feeds. Understanding this concept, teenagers have taken an alternate method of social networking through Facebook. Facebook has 111,212,840 followers solely in the United States. With those statistics, it is fairly obvious which networking system is more appealing to not only teenagers, but all Americans.