Another Spark* article that I’ve just finished – it’s not necessarily finished yet, I’m a bit restricted on word limits and wanted longer to write about it, but I couldn’t think of anything else to write about so had to suggest this in haste for the next issue though I’d rather have worked on it over christmas and done it properly. I was a bit misguided with who I need to pitch the article to and a bit late so I’m sort of on the backburner for this issue because there’s already enough articles to fill out the section, but was asked to write the article anyway because these are entirely new writers and the editor, having seen me reliably write for it before, wants to have something else to run if the other articles are late/suck. If it goes to print at the end of the week then great, if not then I’ve got christmas to work on it and do it properly so smashing, either way works.
TWITTERATI
by Mat Greenfield
Twitter, though once merely an outlet for laconic geeks, has skyrocketed in the past year into the realm of the everyday social network service, thanks, in no small part, to the celebrities who have joined the Twitosphere and drawn in new users. But how far has Twitter become simply a way of stalking the stars, and how much influence has a platform like this given to these Twitterati?
Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that allows users to say (or “tweet”) anything they want, as long as it doesn’t exceed 140 characters. It includes additional features such as “following” users to automatically see their tweets, “trending topics” that picks out keywords that people are tweeting about, “@replies” which allows you to reference another user in a tweet and “Re-Tweeting” which allows you to directly reference and respond to tweets or topics of discussion. Unlike Facebook, there are no restrictions on who can see what you type, meaning anyone can see your tweet through searching. People can say whatever they want on Twitter, which, unfortunately, means that a lot of tweets are little more than a social commentary on the mundane. However, when it comes to current affairs, Twitter is the only social network that is open enough to display tweets to its entire user-base, which has lead to discussions on news, government and, more than anything, celebrities.
Celebrities on Twitter, who have become known as Twitterati, come in two distinct varieties; some simply see it as another way to get free publicity, such as Britney Spears. A great many more, however, use Twitter as a way to connect with their fans in a way not possible before, such as the infamous Stephen Fry, the first celebrity to regularly tweet. Fry, who is currently followed by more than one million users, tweets mostly his bursts of wit, humour and wisdom that has made him such a British icon, as well as making a point to interact with his fans on Twitter as much as possible. Other non-promotional celebrity tweeters include John Cleese, Jonathan Ross, Charlie Brooker and Russell Brand, who tweet sardonic humour into their daily activities. Politicians, on the other hand, use Twitter to promote their causes, including Barack Obama when he was on the election trail, and Al Gore, who tweets mostly about fighting climate change.
Has the celebrity presence defined Twitter? The explosion of user numbers after the Twitterati influx certainly seems to say so, and many of these new users seldom write tweets themselves, a study suggests that only 40% of Twitter users actually post tweets whilst the rest simply use it to keep up with the Twitterati, despite Twitter’s efforts not to promote or favour the famous. The presence of Twitterati is not necessarily a bad thing, as a link to the opinions of influential figures can help causes that they may wish to advocate, such as a massive upsurge of signatories on the anti-‘three strikes law’ petition after endorsement from Stephen Fry on Twitter. However, it is a bad thing for Twitter in that, despite its current popularity, unless it carves out a new niche for itself instead of merely a celebrity-stalking website, then once the celebs get bored and leave, their followers will leave too and Twitter will go south for the metaphorical winter. Twitter needs new features that’ll make it a genuinely useful social networking tool and a viable place for discussion of news and other topics to draw in genuine users who won’t abandon Twitter once the Twitterati get bored.
[...] writer I have to consider grammar. The other day, when I was making the umpteenth alteration to my Twitterati article for Spark*, I closed up another sentence with my usual brilliant wit and insight when, to my utmost [...]