1. Twitter is like a game of broken telephone
Because messages are short and can be broadcast quickly and easily, Twitter can feel to its users like a fast-paced conversation (Boyd et al., 2010). The difference from a normal conversation is that people are taking part in a whole range of different interactions. It's like being at a party and talking to 10 different groups at the same time.
All sorts of processes that you would recognise from conversations are also going on in Twitter: much information is simply repeated (retweeted) but messages are corrupted over time, like a game of broken telephone (UK: Chinese whispers), as people re-evaluate, re-interpret or misinterpret the meaning of the original tweet.
But Twitter doesn't always feel like a conversation as people use it in different ways. In the same way that talking isn't always conversation, sometimes it's a command, an expression of surprise or an aid to thought. In other words, Twitter isn't just social, it has a big informational component, which we'll come on to.
What explains the rise of tags like #wordsthatleadtotrouble? Are black people participating in these types of conversations more often than nonblacks? Are other identifiable groups starting similar kinds of hashtags, but it's only those initiated by African-Americans that are hitting the trending topics list? If that's true, what is it about the way black people use Twitter that makes their conversations so popular? Then there's the apparent segregation in these tags. While you begin to see some nonblack faces after a trending topic hits Twitter's home page, the early participants in these tags are almost all black. Does this suggest a break between blacks and nonblacks on Twitter—that real-life segregation is being mirrored online?
After watching several of these hashtags from start to finish and talking to a few researchers who've studied trends on Twitter, I've got some potential answers to these questions. Black people—specifically, young black people—do seem to use Twitter differently from everyone else on the service. They form tighter clusters on the network—they follow one another more readily, they retweet each other more often, and more of their posts are @-replies—posts directed at other users. It's this behavior, intentional or not, that gives black people—and in particular, black teenagers—the means to dominate the conversation on Twitter.
One of the most common dismissals of Twitter sounds something like this, "I don't need to know what a bunch of people had for breakfast." My response to this is always, "if that what you're seeing on Twitter, you're following the wrong people." Twitter can help academics make and maintain connections with people in their fields, find out about interesting projects and research, or crowdsource questions and technical problems, but it can be difficult to know where to start.
I have more than one goal in mind when using Twitter. In fact, I have several. They may be different than your goals. Your goals are also okay. (Oh, and you’re doing it wrong.)
- I use Twitter to get the pulse of people in the larger online world.
- I use Twitter to communicate in two directions.
- I use Twitter to promote important causes, as well as business opportunities.
- I use Twitter to promote other people’s stuff 12 times as much I as do mine (12:1 rule).
- I use Twitter to stay updated on people’s shared news.
- I use Twitter as a quick pulse-taking service.
- I use Twitter to find business (via search).
- I use Twitter to stream links to my stuff and to others’ stuff.
- I use Twitter to connect with humans.
Again, there are lots of ways to use it. Your way is just wonderful. My way is just mine.