Twitter2

“During the midst of a culture transformation how has twitter changed the
way young adults communicate."

By: Bridget O’Brien

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Introduction
✤ Twitter is an online social networking service and microblogging service that allows users to send and read
text-based messages of up to 140 characters, known as "tweets".

✤ Founded on March 21 of 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Evan WIlliams, Biz stone and launched July 15th,
2006.

✤ currents have 500 million users ( active since April 2012)

✤ Trending topics

Content of Twitter

   News 3.6%
   Spam 3.75%
   Self-promotion 5.86%
   Pointless babble 40.54%
   Conversational 37.55%
   Pass-along value 8.70%


HOW HAS TWITTER CHANGED THE WAY WE
COMMUNICATE?
• This research topic is huge in communication and media because social media has changed the way
we communicate with friends, family and corporations.

• Companies embrace social media to increase their intake with customers and shareholders. When
using Twitter customers will communicate with what matters most to them.

• Also, twitter is fast and helpful app that allows easy access to the world about news, celebrities,
personal life, business and ect.

• Twitter is a medium with both constraints and opportunities, depending on how you see it.

• I picked Twitter to research because personally I am always on it and it is an easy way to
communicate. Sometimes I believe people are to forward posting their every move, but we do it
for a reason.


EXAMPLE
• Hearing about what your friends had for breakfast is actually
more interesting than it sounds. The technology writer Clive
Thompson calls this "ambient awareness" He states, “by
following these quick, abbreviated status reports from
members of your extended social network, you get a strangely
satisfying glimpse of their daily routines.”

• When we call a friend we ask how a day went... On the other
hand Twitter gives you the same information without you even
having to ask.


Review of Relevant Literature

Discuss relevant findings, and how they are a
springboard for your research.


How and why people Twitter: the role that micro-blogging plays in
informal communication at work
by: Dejin Zhao (Article)

“Micro-blogs, a relatively new phenomenon, provide a new communication channel for people to
broadcast information that they likely would not share otherwise. It has become popular quickly,
raising its potential for serving as a new informal communication medium at work, providing a
variety of impacts on collaborative work (e.g., enhancing information sharing, building common
ground, and sustaining a feeling of connectedness among colleagues)” (Zhao).

This research project shows the readers an in-depth understanding of how and why people use
Twitter. They use it as a popular micro-blogging tool and potential impacts at work.

While doing my research this shows the importance that Twitter can have at companies/work
environments. For example, my Uncle is a Boston Fire Fighter and they have their own twitter
page. This gives him a sense of connection and builds common ground.


Twitters Global Impact
by: Sarah Murphy

This research shows how twitter has been a success and has been helping
organize protests in Egypt, Tunsia and the U.S, including the Occupy Wall
Street movement.

The facts in this reading show the importance of twitter world wide
50 million people log on to twitter everyday!
55 percent of the users are mobile users.
Twitter activity is heaviest from 11. am to 3pm
Average
2010- 50 million tweets per day..FEB 2011 140 mill tweets..Sept. 2011 230 mill tweets

This reading also, shows the importance twitter has on celebrities .
“The size of Twitter's presence and power is huge. Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber
and Britney Spears together have more Twitter followers than the entire populations of Sweden, Israel, Greece,
Chile, North Korea and Australia” (Murphy 1)


! ! ! ! Expectations

Reviewing the literature I am expecting to find that most teenagers will have a
twitter.

I believe that since Twitter has begun to have a huge impact that each teen will
have a significant amount of friends and time spent on twitter. (Hour or two
daily)

Also, the majority of the age group I studied was from 16-22 where I believe twitter
is more so for personal and the social aspect. Whereas older groups would be for
business, news and connecting with family .

My hypothesis of my research question is that I believe twitter has changed how
we communicate because we tend to say how we feel and learn things more so
from twitter than in person or on the phone. Twitter is just another way that social
media is increasing in this decade and this can have pros and cons.


Methods
The method I chose for this research project is a survey. Surveys I feel can give you good
results in a quick manner of time.

One benefit of an online survey software is that it collects and analyzes your data.

To ask questions of random by a certain age group and review the response by percentage
can help better serve an overall answer.

I first, made a survey and posted it on the web. Overall I gathered 47 people to respond to
the 9 simple multiple choice and 1 short answer question.

There also can be negatives with surveys, some people may skip questions or just not tell the truth.
Also, getting people now of days to take the time to sit down and take a survey can be difficult.


RESULTS

Out of 47 people only 4 answered that they did not
have a Twitter page, while 43 answered yes.


For young adults the social/fun aspect of twitter is the highest percentage. I believe
the reasoning is because these adults use twitter to connect with friends in an easy
access and also allow others to connect with them with their own tweets.


Many people spend diﬀerent amount of time on Twitter/
social networks
Highest hours of time is 10 hours, which can be
concerning that people actually spend that much
time on the social media.
1 hour is the majority of time spent on Twitter.


100-200 friends are the highest percentage at 38.64 and 400-500 friends are the lowest at 4.55.
The ﬁve people who answered only knowing a few of their friends probably go in the category of
400-500 friends because it is rare. Just because you are friends, “follow” people on twitter does
not mean you have met them in person. This is an example of how social networking is
expanding because it allows you to connect with people you have never met before. ( Also, have
to be careful with that too.)


w

We tend to post things about ourself as young adults on Twitter wanting the viewers to see. These results show
that sometimes we communicate in where we give out information and also then receiving it right back from
others. Twitter is a way how we learn about others and even sometime their every move.


I asked this question because Twitter can also be a
negative when people are “sub tweeting”. Happens
in relationships were people will begin to post on
their twitter as an indirect way of telling a person
something. Twitter can become to much when it is
used to put people down. Even though the majority
said no to this question 17 percent said yes and 26
percent said sometimes. Meaning sometimes the
things others post can not be beneﬁcial.


Short Answer
Is Twitter Addicting and Why?

When reading the answers the majority say yes and gave reasons such as... it is fun
to see what everyone is up to including celebrities. Also, is something to do, quick
access, something to read, catches attention, funny posts.

On the other hand a few people who said no were strongly against it, thinking it is
kind of strange to know what everyone is doing and think it is to much that is
taking over the world.

Overall, twitter does have a lot of positive feedback but there are also people who
believe it is not a good way to communicate, but Twitter is changing how we
communicate!


Negatives of Twitter
Rely on it to much, taking away normal communication daily.

You can’t always believe what you hear on twitter..rumors can be spread viral.

people may begin to get away from common sense, post stupid stuﬀ, be in danger.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN2HAroA12w


CONCLUSION

What do your findings mean? The majority of the people who took this survey use
Twitter as a resource for many things, but mainly for the social/fun aspect. The way we
communicate has changed because we rely so much on social media such as Twitter to
find out what everyone is doing. Sometimes it is a good thing, but other times it can be
to much and take us away from face to face conversation.

How do they compare with past findings of others’ research? “Pointless
babble” was the highest content of Twitter and the survey proved that it was correct!

What are the larger implications of the study and its findings? That Twitter is
another huge social network like Facebook and Myspace and it will keep evolving as will
social media gets faster and smarter.


CONTINUED

How did the research (not) fully support your expectation?

When doing this research project I got the information I needed, Twitter has an effect on young adults and
how we communicate because we rely on the “twitter feed” to find out what others are doing. We also repay
the favor and tweet what we are doing. Twitter is full of information and whether it is for fun, business,
advertisement, ect. those 140 characters we post is a new way of how we communicate.

Secondly, there are a few things I would change if I were to conduct another research on communication
and Twitter. Knowing that Twitter has an effect on people and has changed young adults to communicate
through it, I should have asked their exact age to see the difference between that. Also, when some people
answered no to having a twitter I should have had other questions asking why and comparing the two.

Overall, social media and communicating through it is awesome to study because there is no right or wrong
answers as long as you have evidence to back it up. Learning about Twitter and social networking only
opened my eyes more to how social media and electronics are increasing and how everything is faster and
smarter!


Final thoughts
Research Methods
Through out the research project I realized that the
overall picture of doing research can be difficult.

This assignment showed me that even with a Survey
research takes time and effort. Research methods are
huge and by picking the best way to approach it is a
huge impact on your research.

Working with the survey method showed me pros and cons
and helped me learn how to approach one better next
time I use one.


Work Cited
• Boyd, D. "Tweet, Tweet, Retweet: Conversational Aspects of Retweeting on Twitter." (2010): 1-10. Web.

• http://www.livescience.com/16637-twitter-social-networking-global-impact-infographic.html. Sarah Murphy

• Zhao, Dejin. "How and Why People Twitter: The Role That Micro-blogging Plays in Informal Communication
at Work." N.p., 2009. Web.

• Ari, Elia B. "Twitter: What's All the Chirping About?" BioScience 59.7 (2009): 632. Web.

• Quinn, Kari, and Kylie Northover. "Dismissed as a Joke, Twitter Revolutionizes the Way We
Communicate." (n.d.): n. pag. Print.


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