Saturday, November 23, 2013

My thoughts on Twitter

As you all know that Twitter is a social platform to send tweets (thoughts) of not more than 140 characters to a group or an individual. These tweets are nothing but messages that flow in a Twittersphere. It essentially is a publish/subscribe mechanism, wherein people who want to subscribe to different kind of ideas (that they like) do so by subscribing to a channel (a user or a company). In turn whoever publishes a message on his channel is assured of distributing the message to those who are subscribed to the channel. In addition there are #tags. These are other groups active in this ecosystem which also receives the message once somebody makes a mention of them using the #tag in their tweets. To complete it there are also @mentions, which is used to target a user or a company that you want to be cited.

You know the thing about Twitter is that it allows us to be precise as there is a limitation of the number of characters we can type in a message. Further, the message gains its power when somebody re-tweets it. By the simple act of re-tweeting, the message is sent to all those people who are subscribed to that sender and so on, it multiplies. As any other thought, these messages have the capability to affect us in a positive or negative way. Shouldn’t be saying negative, because there is no such thing. The right term would be less positive. Let me clarify. Is there any such thing as -2 apples or -2 $ in the real world. The world designed by God is positive. Yes there can be an absence (zero) but no negative. Thus we can definitely say that Twitter is a positive influence. And if you philosophize a little bit, everything is.

What seems to be negative is nothing but a thought with very low power. You might be knowing that bad (for the lack of a better term) things do not last, as much as good ones do. Twitter is an experience in brevity with the power to change the world. But as of now, there are only about 250 million Twitter followers. The more it increases (as it will), the better. The whole planet must get connected. On an average a human being gets 60,000 thoughts in a day. And the messages flowing in this ecosphere is just a fraction of that. Like any thought, the message is powerful. Thoughts trigger emotions. And hence these messages have a role in our well being. As long as someone is listening to the messages, they become contextual. The meaning wipes off the moment the message doesn’t reach the intended audience.

Sometimes the message is in real-time when the sender sends it first-hand. But nowadays there are ways to tweet at scheduled times when it is more effective. (so that it reaches the maximum number of people) Also there are bots (machines) which automatically reply to messages. These messages can also be instrumental in causing effect. Which is to affect the receiver in a way or two. However, I doubt the authenticity of the same. Sometimes machines do not respond the way we do. But technology is getting better. And the gap between the two is slowly narrowing. But whatever may be the source of the message, it still is a message. The intent of a message can be under doubt depending on the source of it. The way to verify the sender is limited. We really cannot distinguish between the two.

Despite whatever limitations or features, Twitter still represents a powerful platform of social exchange affecting millions of lives on this beautiful planet.

To your best always,

Guru30

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