Why Twitter Owns Facebook

Twitter and Facebook. Without a doubt, my two most visited websites.

The thing which most avid facebook users don’t understand is that Twitter isn’t just a 140 character status – it’s a community. The Twitter community is one of interest to those you’re following. It’s easy to write a facebook status, you can write a paragraph and hit send. On Twitter, being limited to 140 characters means you have to think about what you want to say, so it can fit into that small character limit. Because of that, people on Twitter assume that a tweet is something probably worth reading, as time and thought has gone into it. Also, as all Twitter is is statuses, Twitter users generally don’t abuse the use of them; what’s said is relevant, and the person tweeting truly wants someone to read what has been typed.

Twitter does not have a picture upload feature, not does it have a video uploader or a blogging feature. Twitter understands its strengths, and respects the strengths of Flickr, Youtube and WordPress. If Twitter users want to share any of this media to the Twitter community, external links can be posted via a tweet. And if there is an image which people may want to be the focus of a tweet, there’s Twitpic and the like. Here, one photo is uploaded per tweet, therefore in my view it’s just as valuable as the 140 characters someone can type, as they’ve routed through their photos to find one singular image to share. There’s an understanding that as Twitter users, there’s a limited amount of interest we have in each other’s lives.

Twitter is still something which I believe has yet to be tapped fully into the UK. Is this a good thing? I haven’t yet decided. I’ve noticed that some people who have used Facebook for a while and then decide to start using Twitter don’t exactly fit in, or at least not straight away. This is because of the change in mentality needed to appreciate the quick pace associated with Twitter, as opposed to the information overload in Facebook. With Twitter, less is definitely more. Often, Twitter statuses are worded quite differently to Facebook statuses. This is because on Facebook, replies or likes are almost expected, whereas on Twitter replies are not generally expected, meaning ambiguity is generally discouraged, as it makes a boring and pointless tweet. On Facebook, everyone is friended to everyone they know, however loose the connection may be. However, on Twitter, people are followed on the value of their tweets, as their tweets use page space, and as I’m sparing my time to read tweets, I want them to be of interest and value to me. On Facebook, it’s all about joining the bandwagon; there’s millions of groups to join which are supposed to show your personality in a different way, but all it really shows is that you’re a sheep, you can’t think about how to convey your interests in a more original manner. Be original, write a blog! It’s strangely fulfilling!

If you clicked this link through Facebook, that means you’re willing to reach out beyond that social network, into another, so well done. Because, you see, I could have posted this all in a Facebook note, which holds the same basis of a blog. If Facebook have done one thing right, it’s the consolidation of all forms of social networking placed into one convenient place. Want to post photos? Want to upload videos? Want to blog? Want to play online games? So, to conclude, as your current tab isn’t Facebook, maybe you should make your way to www.twitter.com and join the Twitter army! Be an individual!