by Jane Craford

“I survived the Twitpocalypse!” blasts the graphic on the organic cotton T-shirt available from cafepress.com.  What’s the Twitpocalypse and why should I care?  Tweets are being sent to Twitter at the current rate of 202 tweets per second.  Each tweet has a unique identifying positive number.  When the torrent of tweets exceeded the number 2,147,483,647, some third-party Twitter applications were not designed to handle this condition and would crash when their application would suddenly turn the number into a negative sequence. Thus, the verities of computer science seeped into the consciousness of everyday Twitter users.

Tweople of all types start paying attention to the tweets in the substantial Tweet Stream.  The Italian Futurist artist, F. T. Marinetti, would probably delight in the blend of popular and high culture that mixes in a Twitter stream.  Marinetti would probably recognize his ideas, handed down to us in his Variety Theater Manifesto, living in the Twitterverse.  The absurd juxtapositions, the random surprises, the illogical interruptions, when popular and elite, high and low culture are syncretized in the Twitter stream echo what Marinetti saw as the ‘great Futurist hilarity that should make the world’s face young again.’

The new meaning or unexpected perspective that is sparked by the collisions from the juxtapositions of contrasting types of information is one of the addictive pleasures of Twitter.  A mind dulled by the tedium of a boring job can be revived quickly by as little as a half hour of exposure to the effervescent Twitter stream.  At the rate of 202 tweets per second, that calculates to 363,600 tweets in 30 minutes.  The number of tweets flowing in one Twitterer’s stream, however, represents the tweet activity of only the set of people that Twitterer is following, rather than the sum of all people logged into Twitter at that moment in time.  The hilarity of random surprises would be minimized or maximized, depending on the characteristics of the Twitterer’s group being followed.  If you follow only elite, high culture-type Twitterers your Twitter stream may be less effervescent than it would if you also were following pop culture Twitterers whose tweets when juxtaposed with the high culture Twitterers could add some gas to your Twitter stream.

Twitter can be a refreshing flow of tweets that make your ‘face young again.’  At the same time, it can be a lifeline for an endangered person or community desperately seeking connection to a rescuing world. On the same weekend that the Twitpocalypse occurred, the Twitter stream was carrying immediate reportage of the election in Iran.  Twitter’s highly evolved search function sprung into action as news about the Iran election was sought, causing a proliferation of Twitter search tags (hashtags), such as  #IranElection, #tehran, #CNN, etc. that could be clicked on within a tweet to enable rapid response to the breaking news event.

Two billion, one hundred ninety-two million, ninety-two thousand and counting unique tweets have been sent since Twitters inception in March 2006.  This instantaneous global communication (for those who have access to at least a texting cell phone), like a swiftly flowing river, is cutting new shorelines and reshaping the geography of our minds at the rate of 202 tweets per second.  If F. T. Marinetti were alive, I’m sure he would be twittering and I’m sure his face would be young again.

Have you heard of the new social networking site Twitter? Well if you haven’t and you’re not sure if you want to check it out or not, then read on!

Twitter is the newest and currently the top social networking sites. Twitter is a bit different from your average Facebook, Myspace, or MyYearbook account. On Twitter, you update your status, and follow people. But that’s not it. You can send personal “Tweets” (messages on twitter) to the people you follow, or celebrities! You can receive and send mobile updates as well.

It’s a simple website, but so much fun to use! Celebrities like Hugh Jackman, have used it to learn from people about new causes that he could possibly donate to. It’s simple to use, and has a user friendly interface.

Twitter also lets you upload your own avatar to personalize your webpage, along with a customized layout! Twitter tracks how many people follow you, and how many people you follow. It’s a great way to interact with people on line without the hassle of friend requests or spam! It’s the newest social networking revolution, and I believe it will never get old.

News broadcasts use it as well, (such as CNN and Fox), in order to get viewer opinions! Technology is getting better and better everyday, and so isn’t communication. So why not join just about everyone else in America, by logging onto Twitter and start your social networking experience today!

You really should have a twitter account! If you cannot, at any given moment, look at whether your best friend has beat a highscore on his xbox or burnt his bread, you’re missing out on a lot.

Now while the general public uses twitter as a quick and stable communication system, whiney hormonal adolescents have discovered it for their own self-gratifying journalling. Of course nobody will read about how their stubbed toenail sparked a furious debate between mother and daughter, ending in tears for both sides, but for the depressively fragile it is strongly cathartic.

But the versatility doesn’t end there. With 140 words you can make an impact. Strike a dent in the oppressive media with fist-shaking brevity. Pithily point out their bias! Taunt a celebrity! Make like a bird with some onomatopoetic twittering. Question your friends sexuality after the couch incident last night.

Before Twitter there was the equivalent of nothing. Unread diaries and journals of greasy angst formed the scorching desert of the internet. An electric mouth, hungry for activity, gnawing at the remains of websites with background midi music. It’s need has finally been satisfied.

With Twitter you just have a bareable amount of just that. Like say, a potted cactus gracing your living room. Scream all you want at the 140 character limit, but its for your own sake. If you keep it short, people will like you, or as Kurt Kobain said it, “Think before you tweet.”

Social networking is slowly infecting the way we live. People love talking, they just can’t be bothered to stand up. One could say it is a significant leap towards world peace, but that would be a lie and unacceptably impolite.

Social networking is simply a way to keep in touch with your friends, and a way for any private company to instantly monitor your entire online history, hobbies, favorite show and what type of guinea pig you’ve always wanted.

I find a brilliant use for twitter is trying to condense a grammatically correct story into 140 characters. It’s incredibly difficult yet rewarding.

Twitter easily lets you find new people to follow, before they drop into obscurity while you broadcast an unpunctuated tweet about what nail polish you bought. Stalkers will be delighted to hear that many celebrities have publically announced their allegance to Twitter. Finding that tree to sit on has never been easier, just don’t forget the rope.

Twitter can also automatically choose people that would be suitable to be your friends. Keep in mind though, it’s a computer and I wouldn’t trust computers and if you’ve seen Terminator, neither should you.

“Twitter” I’m sure most of us have heard the term somewhere, A friend may say, “tweet me later.”or you may hear it on the news since most TV stations seem to be getting into the whole social networking scene.

You’ve also probably heard someone say “Oh, I’m following them!” because yes, you CAN follow Celebrities, TV stations, Stores, Your favorite video game, Sports team, even… The President.

Basically its used to keep people up to date with ANYTHING going on in the world in real-time.

These updates are called “Tweets.” What is interesting about Twitter is that you can scroll all the way to the bottom of any page and search for people who are “tweeting” about topics that interest you! For example, if you type in Iphone you will receive “tweets” posted as soon as one second ago about the Iphone! It’s great for keeping up to date with music, movies, and current events!

Also, Twitter has a Trending Topics side bar on almost every Twitter page. It shows you what topics are popular and you can click any link in the side bar and be brought a search of the topic.

Twitter also gives you the option to refresh the page is someone tweets about that topic while you are already looking at the most up to the second tweets! A great feature!

You may be curious to what it means when someone “Retweets” something. Well, the art of retweeting is simple, it is basically just taking reposting something someone else has already posted, and giving them credit for the original post (tweet.) Most users put Retweet: before the actual post then credit at the end by using @ then the original posters name. Sometimes Twitter users use RT instead of Retweet, or sometimes they use “Retweeting” and then the post. Retweets are a lot of fun and can get you a lot of followers!

You can also send specific messages on twitter to one user to make sure they see what you have to say by typing @ and the user name of the person you wish to tweet. Example @Starrla88 Hey missed you today! or something along those lines.

Currently, two people who I follow on twitter are competing in a race to 100 followers, this is a fun idea between friends. Both are sitting around 60-65 followers, It will be interesting to see who will win because both are constantly neck and neck and fighting for people to follow one and not the other.

If you aren’t currently into the Twitter scene, you should check it out, especially if you own a small business you can promote yourself with Twitter. Or you can just use it to stay in contact and up to date on people who you care about!

Most everyone today is familiar with Twitter. While it may be fun to view the goings and comings of your favorite celebrity or athlete, I used Twitter in a very different way. Harnessing the power of Twitter was very easy once I realized that you could use the search application to narrow the types of people or entities you follow. For me, I have a son in high school that is quickly becoming college age. While there are the traditional methods of researching everything about a college including the average grade point of applicants, courses offered and other information from its web site or through a visit, using Twitter provided a very personal way to get insight into various colleges. True not every college we are considering has a Twitter site but they are growing every day. The first group of Twitter sites I added was the admissions department of every available college. These tweets consisted mainly of the daily goings on in the department as well as excerpts of the essays from applicants the admission counselors found good enough to share with the world. Frankly, this provided insight into the background, extracurricular activities and overall personality of applicants that the college admission representatives obviously believed had great merit. Another group of Twitter sites added was the sports. My son plays baseball and we added every college sports and baseball site we could find. These sites keep us up to date on the team’s goings and comings, scores and in some cases insights into the coach’s views. Like interviewing for a job, it is of the utmost importance to be as familiar as possible with aspects of a sports team you might join when discussing any recruitment or tryouts with the coach or coaching staff. Finally, but not least important were the Twitter sites of the college students. They maintain sites relating to their feeling about the schools, their campus activities, other students, teachers and the administration. We have found these Tweets to be quite informative as to not only the overall personality of the students taking the time to make entries but even the support and opportunities in the community surrounding the colleges. Using Twitter as an extended college recruitment tool dramatically increased our knowledge of the colleges and surrounding communities. It continues every day to grow as the network of those we follow increases. You can use this type of focus with relation to any type of networking group. It can be used for personal or business goals to both enlighten you and keep you in touch with people and groups in which you have an interest.