Twitter - "Micro Blogging"What exactly is an online community?
While the entire global Internet is one online community, the term “online community” is more specifically applied to particular interest groups, trades, cultural genres and local neighborhoods. An online community is a group of people that may or may not primarily or initially communicate or interact via the Internet. Online communities have also become a supplemental form of communication between people who know each other in real life. The dawn of the "information age" found groups communicating electronically rather than face to face. (Virtual Community, 2007). At present, some of the relatively popular online community sites are Friendster, MySpace.com, and Twitter, with the latter being the most current addition.
Twitter?
Twitter is a social networking service that allows members to inform each other about what they are doing and what they think. It allows users to send messages via phone or instant messaging. (Twitter, 2007). Twitter is for staying in touch and keeping up with friends no matter where or what you are doing. Ross Mayfield (2007) says that Twitter is Continuous Partial Presence, mostly made up of mundane messages in answer to the question, "what are you doing?" A never-ending steam of presence messages prompts you to update your own. Messages are more ephemeral than IM presence – and posting is of a lower threshold, both because of ease and accessibility, and the informality of the medium.
Hence is Twitter an online community?
As said by Fernback and Thompson (1995), a community is an important aspect of life for most people. Cooley (1983) says that all normal humans have a natural affinity for community. He suggests that the primary factor inhibiting the formation of communities, no matter what their scale, is that they are difficult to organize. The structural process that is associated with community is communication. Without communication there can be no action to organize social relations. The intimate nature of this relationship is best illustrated in the words community and communications. Hence, the basis for the formation of an online community is MUTUAL COMMUNICATION.
However, I feel that it is rather hard to classify Twitter as proper online community. Online community is not just based on mere connections to people; it is formed more through mutual communication. However on Twitter, members can add anybody and almost everybody. Members would probably not be able to start proper conversations if they do not have any friends on Twitter to begin with. Hence members go around adding “others”.
As it is already known, nothing on the Internet is private. On Twitter, messages typed are displayed for all to see. The extreme lack of privacy on Twitter results in the breakdown of mutual communication, and thus is not feasible for developing personal relationships. Beniger (1987), Jones (1995), and Stoll (1995), have said that the comparatively low bandwidth of computer-mediated communication cannot sustain strong ties online. Wellman and Gulia (1996) argue that without physical and social cues or immediate feedback, email can foster extreme language, difficulties in coordination and feedback and group polarization. Perhaps the medium itself does not support strong, intimate relationships; or as neo- McLuhanites might say, the medium may not support the message (McLuhan 1965).
As blogger Mitch Joel (2007) puts it, Twitter also serves as a form of “micro-blogging”. Messages sent through Twitter are not reached or replied to immediately. Members will be notified of the messages they have received only after they have logged in, causing a delay in communication. The short messages posted replicate blogging, whereby bloggers post up their musings and rattle on and on about them.
Conclusion:
Twitter allows room for Internet messaging and conversations, just like an online community. However, it does not provide the liberty of forging close relationships online; one that is imperative to the building of an online community. In addition, Twitter somewhat likens to a blog, hence no mutual communication. Thus, Twitter cannot possibly be considered as an online community.
References:
1. Fernback, J., & Thompson, B. (1995). Virtual Communities: Abort, Retry, Failure? Retrieved March 16, 2007, from http://www.rheingold.com/texts/techpolitix/VCcivil.html
2. Wellman, B., & Gulia, Milena. (1996). Virtual Communities as Communities. Retrieved March 16, 2007, from http://www.acm.org/%7Eccp/references/wellman/wellman.html
3. Mayfield, Ross. (2007). Twitter Tips the Tuna. Ross Mayfield’s Weblog. Retrieved March 16, 2007, from http://ross.typepad.com/blog/2007/03/twitter_tips_th.html
4. “Virtual Community” (March 15, 2007) From Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Retrieved 19:42, March 16, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_community
5. “Twitter” (March 16, 2007) From Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Retrieved 20:11, March 16, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter
6. Mitch Joel (2007). Twitter Starts Here - The New Revolution Might Be Micro-Blogging. Retrieved March 16, 2007, from http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/000883.html
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