Blog Post #4

     For my research, I chose one of my favorite platforms to receive the news from, Twitter! Twitter is a great app you can get on a cellphone or look it up on a computer (Twitter.com) According to Britannica, twitter is an "online microblogging service for distributing short messages among groups of recipients." (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Twitter) As a twitter user, you can send tweets to your "friends" updating them about what you are doing during the day and you can also look up what is trending currently, so you can see fresh news. 

    The history of twitter is very interesting, it was built off a different wed application called "Ruby on Rails", which was designed by Evan Williams and Biz Stone. (britannica.com) It first started out as being a messaging service called, Twttr, but the designers saw a potential in the idea and soon starting working to change its purpose and than it evolved into being Twitter. Twitter also didn't start becoming popular until famous actor, Ashton Kutcher, received a million followers on twitter and then the innovators of the SMS system saw more potential and realized they could make it more than messaging. 

    The "problem" that Twitter was trying to solve was staying connected with people at first, but when they realized the potential Twitter had the innovators changed it into a way to get news with the trending tab. It also gave people the privilege of staying in touch with their idols or celebrities while they go through their normal days. 

    I think this innovation changed the world because not only did it give people news fast, it also connected with technological advances throughout the years. This meaning that the innovators of Twitter saw that newer generations were getting more involved with cell phones and technology, that they made improvements to reach out to the younger generations to make Twitter popular. The problems it solved were also how people explained what was going on throughout their days. Before Twitter, people would have to get a full backstory to lead up to one important topic that was being discussed. Now you can see on Twitter right then and there when something is going on with your friends and then you can ask them about it later in person when you see them or you can call them.

    This changed communication because it gave people easier access to talk to other people. Before Twitter was popular, you had to wait to see the person in person to hear their stories, but now you can just see it on Twitter. A negative impact that Twitter has is it now has generations living with their face in the phone to see the constant updates. It doesn't allow to let people look up and see the world for itself and it also prevents the face to face contact that people need to thrive. You can now look at Twitter all day to see what is happening with people instead of seeing the emotions in person. As you per already know the internet can be a dangerous place where people hide behind screens and do things that are not the most ideal. Twitter gives them the opportunity to be anonymous if they want which makes it very hard to find people that are doing illegal things. Going with hiding behind screens, Twitter can also expose you as a person. You can find a lot of personal information about someone on Twitter like what their beliefs are, when their birthdays are, where exactly are, etc. The internet can be innovative and dangerous in so many different ways. 

Sources 

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Twitter

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