The Effects of Twitter

Twitter has 500 million followers, 33 billion tweets are sent out every day and one million accounts are made every day. There is no doubt that people are enjoying the social site. Without even knowing it, twitter has had certain effects in our modern world.

Effect on media and journalism
Twitters main advantage is speed. Twitter allows ordinary people to let the world know exactly what is happening around them before it even hits the big news brands. This makes people in societies more aware of what is happening around them, so even if people do not read the Newspaper or watch the evening news on television they will know what is going on. People are becoming mini journalists, relaying information in real time.

Here is an example of how an ordinary person beat the top News brands:
A twitter user tweeted about a plane crash that happened on the Hudson River; all he did was post a picture of his firsthand account and tweeted his brief report while the rescue boats were on the way. In four hours, 40 000 people had viewed the photo.
Today most people prefer freshly pressed news, getting as much information and firsthand accounts as possible. This is more exciting than waiting for mainstream media to publish and verify their sources. This means that there is a lot more pressure on mainstream media to get information faster and be the first to post the headline. They are now not only competing with each other but also with bloggers and ordinary tweeters. It is now more important to be first than to be accurate. News brands will have to make daily decisions as to what they are willing to give up, is being first worth ruining your reputation, in case the facts are wrong?
Twitter also allows readers to choose which items in the media they want to read and spread across the web. This means that people are ever more in control of what they see and read.

Effect on society and people
Twitter has allowed people to be constantly up to date with everything in their lives, from restaurants, lifestyle tips, events in your city and celebrity gossip. It means people are always on their phone, looking for updates. In some cases it means a relationship will fail due to always being on the phone and in some cases it means finding a new love. Either way it has impacted our lives in one way or another.

For celebrities it can either make or break their career. The latest example is of FHM model of the year 2011, Jessica Leandra. Jessica tweeted racial comments on her twitter profile, once her followers had seen what she had written it was retweeted, the hate speech started and she soon become the number one trend in the country. In the first couple of hours FHM removed her title and all her pictures from the website, her biggest sponsor Quick Trim withdrew their sponsorship. In three tweets she ruined her career.

About the Author:

Nicole de Freitas is a keen writer who shares her thoughts on many of her passions ranging from kruger park tours to digital trends.