Twitter was not a tool/service I was familiar with before coming to the US. Since the evolution of the different social networks, I would say that I am not surprised that such an invention is available. Personally, I don’t really have anything against people using twitter. I especially found the article 25 Twitter tips for college students by Laura Milligan an interesting read. The educational hack part was the one that got me. Sometimes, a professor’s office hours might not be the convenient time for you. Having online real time to ask questions and generally brainstorm is not such a bad idea. Also, there is the collaboration for a project where you get ideas form fellow classmates and other students around the world. “Tweeting” would be really helpful here.
James Karl Buck’s story is one where information was passed on at the right time. But I ask, what if his friend didn’t see his message or he couldn’t connect? That would have been a different story but it wasn’t so Twitter wins the day. As I said earlier, there is nothing I have against this service but I think I draw a line at updating my status message and telling the whole world what I am doing every time(even using the bathroom...just kidding) . Suppose if this message gets into the wrong hands? Well social networking is important but at what cost?
Monday, November 3, 2008
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3 comments:
Great post. You pose some interesting questions. Just through a Blackberry or a text message, Buck could have alerted everyone to his situation over email, IM, or text, Twitter just got lucky that he was using its service. Another question I would ask is about information security. The government already monitors phone calls and employers look at Facebook accounts, but I'm pretty sure IM's and some text messages can still be private (as much as private even exists anymore), but now will organizations be able to stalk and analyze your Twitter feed?
@Andrew
Agreed. After everything being watched these days who knows what could get into people.
For example, people have friended me or whatever on Twitter and I have NO IDEA who they are. What if I forget for some reason who my audience is and accidently post something personal. I never would want these people knowing...ugh the internet can be so frightening.
I'm not a Tweeter, nor will I ever be. The Buck story is a story of chance and luck, that by some form of chance he was using their feed system. But that's not how a product should work.
@Andrew and Molly.
I completely agree with the security concept. I am sure that Twitter staff screens the posts-God I hope they do. But what if this turns into a form of security breach. 140 characters is more than enough to plan an assassination or bank robbery.
I know, I know-that was slightly on the conspiracy theory side, but hey it can happen.
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