To Tweet or not to Tweet - that is the question

The latest trend, and when I say trend I mean media explosion, in social networking is Twitter.

Everywhere you look, everything you read and nearly all websites have leapt on to the Twitter bandwagon. 

It caused the break-up of Jennifer Aniston and John Mayer. It was used by Ashton Kutcher to showcase his much older wife’s behind and saw him lead a media battle against CNN to get the coveted ‘first to a million’ followers.

Lindsay used it to lash out at her now ex-girlfriend Sam Ronson. In fact, who isn’t “tweeting?” Oprah tweets, Miley Cyrus tweets, Lilly Allen tweets, Tila Tequila tweets, Snoop Dogg tweets, Mariah Carey tweets, Demi Moore tweets, Heidi Montag tweets. In fact a full list of celeb tweeters can be found here: http://www.bloggersblog.com/celebritytwitterlist/
 
However, did you know that Twitter is “dangerous?” I kid you not. CNN recently reported that Twitter has the potential to “numb our sense of morality” and “make us indifferent to human suffering.” I bet you are asking yourself, how is this possible?

Well, scientists claim that the speed in which we are processing information, as a result of Twitter, actually hinders our ability to fully feel emotions.  In scientific terms, this phenomenon is called a “stimulus overload.” This isn’t the first we’ve heard about this process – video games, television commercials – have all been blamed for destroying our moral compass and turning our hearts black.
 
There is no denying that Twitter increases the rate in which information is spread but I think it is doing more than just that. I believe that Twitter is actually facilitating communication by making it convenient, instantaneous and concise.
 
Think about it.

With just a mobile phone, an individual person can access Twitter to share information and respond to multiple people at any given time and in any given place. They don’t need to call or text every person in the address book or have access to a computer to send a mass email with a message they wish to share.

What’s more, the 140-character limit tweet, makes communication simpler, our messages more straightforward thereby encouraging us to communicate more often as opposed to writing long-winded emails or engaging in time-consuming phone calls.
 
Call us bias, but at Zing we are always looking for news ways to connect with the online realm. So for us, Twitter is a fabulous way to keep up with our friends, clients, media and co-workers.

But the question remains will Twitter be the death of human emotions or the means in which humans can connect with each other to share emotions? - in 140 characters or less, of course ;)

Darcie 

Darcie is an Account Executive in the Online PR department. She also Tweets.

 

Some Useful Links:

Australian media on Twitter can be found here

Useful Twimailer site to help you decide to follow your followers can be found here

Check out your Twitter Grading here

Analyse your Twitter friends here

 

And why not follow some Zingers on Twitter:

Zing

Geoffrey Emerson @thejeffster

Scott Rhodie @scottrhodie

Darcie O'Malley @darciedownunder

Comments

[Jen (jenius.com.au)]

TweetDeck seems to have covered off the 'stimulus overload', haha, i'm always getting the 'exceeded rate limit' message which pops up once you've had more than 100 API calls per hour.

I http://www.twitter.com/jenius