Reflective Post

Twitter was launched on July 15, 2005 and is currently a worldwide internet service. It's main purposes are text-based posts known as "tweets" and are the basis of the social networking and microblogging of the website. Every user signs up with a twitter alias of their choosing and posts information, which is not regulated by site admins. The reliability of Twitter is not a similar issue to the reliability of Wikipedia because all of the information, false or true, is pure opinion and not fact.

 If I want to know what my favorite bands, actors or even politicians are up to I check Twitter; if I want to know the birthday of the Queen of England I check Wikipedia. However, there is a code of conduct on sites like Twitter, a kind of typing etiquette. That's not to say that all the rules of the internet are unwritten but there is something so pleasantly casual about "tweeting" your thoughts to your followers. When trying to communicate an idea your spelling takes a hit because of the 140 character limit of your tweet. For example, one might use the word 'mngmnt' instead of 'management' in the interest of space.Its a form of public speaking, not directly, less nerves are an obvious advantage. But it was discussed in class that tweeting too much can be an issue. When I got Twitter for ALES204 I began following not only Dr. Lacetti, but also some of my friends who already had Twitter. I began to wonder: when did all my friends become such exhibitionists? When did it become so uncool to be private?

I am very fond of being an introvert, sure Twitter is a great way to communicate ideas or thoughts but everything I tweet, my followers read and can reply to or re-post my tweet. As a final reflection I would like to point out that I prefer to communicate one-on-one whether its in person or through social media. Text messaging or Facebook posting is much more private for personal contacts. However, if I was to post about an event (birthday, anniversary, etc.) I would use a public messaging system like Twitter.

Blogs are also one of my preferred methods of discussing ideas. Before we launched our ALES204 blogs I had had a Livejournal blog since I was 15. I don't post personal information on my blog or my Facebook timeline (if  I can help it) but I was intrigued by a few of my classmates' blog posts:

1. Brenna's Blog
2. Danielle's Blog
3. Lauren's Blog
4. Jamie's Blog
5. Daniel's Blog

References:
Livejournal. Retrieved April 12, 2012 from http://www.livejournal.com/
Twitter (2012) Full Twitter logo for light backgrounds.[png] Retrieved April 12, 2012 from https://twitter.com/about/resources/logos