Twitter - the next superhero?
Everywhere you turn these days there’s a story about Twitter coming to the rescue of a fire or police department. In less than 140 characters on Twitter, agencies - including the FBI - can post crime and suspect details. So far it’s a huge success, but there are plenty of skeptics. For one, social networking sites such as Twitter aren’t secure and many feel that Twitter can’t be a source of trusted information (there have been incidences of phony police accounts). But the FBI, for example, is using it for updates on missing children, fugitives, job fairs and computer viruses - and won’t accept tips over Twitter.
With a fast growing number of users and the ability to efficiently get quick messages out to computer and mobile users everywhere, questions over Twitter users’ authenticity won’t be the straw that broke this camel’s back.
April 15th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
I thought I’d update this post as there was a flurry of articles on the possible moral-diminishing power of Twitter today. Some highlights: “Twittering, rapid media may confuse morals”, “Is Twitter making you immoral?”, “Does Twitter Dampen Emotional Development?”, “Twitter and Facebook could harm moral values, scientists warn”, “Study: Twitter erodes morals”… the list goes on. What I think is interesting is that some of the studies don’t seem to draw a clear enough distinction between different types of “fast-paced media”. Can we really conflate fast moving (and often violent) video games and television programs with tweets and Facebook status updates??