At times it feels as if Jack
Dorsey introduced Twitter at about the same time Bill Gates introduced
Microsoft, but in truth Twitter has been around for less than six years! Twitter’s
dominance of the instant news world is undoubted, and clearly evidenced by the fact
that reputed news analysts and commentators now refer to Twitter as the sources
of their reportage. Within mere seconds on any given day, trending topics are
identified and the world is abuzz with the same emotions. Considering the fact
that over 340 million tweets are issued daily, and over 1.6 billion queries are
searched daily by over 140 million people, now seems an appropriate time to ask
a very important question: “How will Twitter shape the future?”
Twitter has already empowered a
generation of news junkies to have their headlines aggregated and delivered
right on their smart phones and laptops, has spurred many a revolution around
the world and has given many a politician an avenue to embarrass themselves. Beyond
these, Twitter has proven to be a very sophisticated tool for genuine political
discourse. The issues of the day are frequently discussed by opinion makers and
policy makers alike, which affords an observing public to decipher the
direction in which the world is moving. Topics ranging from politics to the
economy, sports, music, fashion, pop culture and trivia are constantly
generated and never again will an internet-connected citizen have an excuse for
not being informed. Times have changed!
As election season gears up in
the USA, politicians are taking to Twitter to address the pressing issues of
the times, and get reasonable feedback. Through trending hashtags and retweets,
politicians are able to get their followers behind them and analyze the
popularity of their ideas; this is a groundbreaking innovation that can be utilized
for endless means! Gone are the days when politicians were clueless about the
veracity of their ideas; gone are the days when a great speech languishes on
Youtube waiting to be searched out; gone are the days when citizens had no
direct contact with their elected officials – Twitter makes all things
possible.
So how will Twitter shape the
future? The crystal ball is difficult to interpret but undoubtedly, more and
more citizens of different countries will gain enlightenment of global issues and
contribute to discussions on topics of interest to them. With the explosion of
internet access across the world and the mass production of smart phones and
other gadgets that enable users to access social media tools, with increased
awareness of services like Twitter, citizen engagement and improved governance
will hopefully take on new dimensions. Politicians will hopefully utilize these
tools to better decipher the desires of their constituents and citizens will hopefully
better hold their elected officials to accountability; economic analyses of
complex issues will hopefully be simplified for the layman to understand and more
revolutions will hopefully be sparked in the darkest corners of the earth.
Of the existing social networking
services, Twitter seems strongly positioned to foster concision while being
explicit, protect privacy while being accessible, and ensure continuity of
important discourses without crowding out the multiplicity of ideas. The possibilities
are endless; we can only ride this wave as long as it lasts and hope that the
future is as bright as it promises to be! Go planet!
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