Twitter Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Impact=== {{Summarize section|date=May 2022}} ====On communication==== In May 2008, ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' wrote that [[social networking service]]s such as Twitter "elicit mixed feelings in the technology-savvy people who have been their [[Diffusion (business)|early adopters]]. Fans say they are a good way to keep in touch with busy friends. But some users are starting to feel ''too'' connected, as they grapple with check-in messages at odd hours, higher [[Mobile phone|cellphone]] bills and the need to tell acquaintances to stop announcing what they're having for dinner."<ref>{{cite news |access-date=February 22, 2011 |url=https://www.wsj.com/public/article/SB117373145818634482-ZwdoPQ0PqPrcFMDHDZLz_P6osnI_20080315.html |title=Friends Swap Twitters, and Frustration β New Real-Time Messaging Services Overwhelm Some Users with Mundane Updates from Friends |work=[[The Wall Street Journal]] |date=March 16, 2007 |last=Lavallee |first=Andrew |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150314141935/http://www.wsj.com/public/article/SB117373145818634482-ZwdoPQ0PqPrcFMDHDZLz_P6osnI_20080315.html |archive-date=March 14, 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The following year, [[John C. Dvorak]] described Twitter as "the new [[Citizens band radio|CB radio]]".<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2351932,00.asp|title=Twitter Is the New CB Radio|first=John C.|last=Dvorak|date=August 25, 2009|magazine=PC Magazine}}</ref><!-- this whole paragraph should be removed & replaced with scholarly analyses; none of this is due --> In April 2023, the [[Metropolitan Transportation Authority]] (MTA) in New York City announced that it would no longer post real-time service updates on Twitter. The transportation system claimed that the platform cannot be trusted to provide consistent updates that riders need. According to an MTA spokesperson, this decision was made after it experienced two Application Programming Interface (API) interruptions over the previous two weeks. However, only the updates were discontinued and the MTA planned to continue to respond to riders' queries.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/new-york-citys-transportation-system-ending-updates-twitter-platform-no-longer-reliable |title=New York City's transportation system ending updates on Twitter, says platform is 'no longer reliable' |work=FOX News}}</ref> In 2023, Twitter introduced a paywall system that required businesses to pay for access to its platform. The payment scheme's upper limit amounts to an annual fee of up to $2.5 million for top-tier access. With the paywall implementation, public agencies issued numerous alerts about potential interruptions to transit and weather. Shanifah Rieara, MTA Acting Chief Customer Officer, revealed that Twitter attempted to demand over $500,000 annually from MTA for platform access, which the latter declined. On May 4, 2023, Twitter backtracked its paywall system, allowing the free posting of automated tweets by verified government profiles. In light of Twitter's decision, MTA announced its resumption of posting automated alerts on the platform.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/04/tech/mta-twitter-resumes/index.html |title=New York MTA resumes transit alerts on Twitter |work=CNN}}</ref> ====Emergency use==== A practical use for Twitter's real-time functionality is as an effective ''[[de facto]]'' emergency communication system for breaking news. It was neither intended nor designed for high-performance communication, but the idea that it could be used for emergency communication was not lost on the creators, who knew that the service could have wide-reaching effects early on when the company used it to communicate during earthquakes.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Alexander |last1=Mills |first2=Rui |last2=Chen |first3=JinKyu |last3=Lee |first4=H. Raghav |last4=Rao |title=Web 2.0 Emergency Applications: How Useful Can Twitter Be for Emergency Response? |journal=Twitter for Emergency Management and Mitigation |year=2009 |page=3 |url=http://denman-mills.net/web_documents/jips_mills.etal._2009.07.22_finalsubmission.pdf |access-date=November 20, 2016 |archive-date=February 6, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170206120212/http://denman-mills.net/web_documents/jips_mills.etal._2009.07.22_finalsubmission.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> Another practical use that is being studied is Twitter's ability to track epidemics and how they spread.<ref>{{cite news |first=Brooke |last=Jarvis |title=Twitter becomes a tool for tracking flu epidemics and other public health issues |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/twitter-becomes-a-tool-for-tracking-flu-epidemics-and-other-public-health-issues/2013/03/04/9d4315c2-6eef-11e2-aa58-243de81040ba_story.html |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=March 4, 2013 |access-date=November 21, 2016}}</ref> Additionally Twitter serves as a real-time sensor for natural disasters such as bush fires and earthquakes.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Robert |last1=Power |first2=Bella |last2=Robinson |first3=David |last3=Ratcliffe |title=Finding Fires with Twitter |url=http://www.aclweb.org/anthology/U/U13/U13-1011.pdf |journal=Proceedings of Australasian Language Technology Association Workshop |year=2013 |access-date=November 21, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first1=Paul |last1=Earle |first2=Daniel |last2=Bowden |first3=Michelle |last3=Guy |title=Twitter earthquake detection: earthquake monitoring in a social world |url=http://www.annalsofgeophysics.eu/index.php/annals/article/view/5364 |journal=Annals of Geophysics |year=2011 |volume=54 |issue=6 |access-date=November 21, 2016}}</ref> ====Education==== Twitter has been adopted as a communication and learning tool in educational and research<ref>{{Cite journal | volume = 3| issue = 1| last = Grandjean| first = Martin| title = A social network analysis of Twitter: Mapping the digital humanities community| journal =Cogent Arts & Humanities| date = 2016| page = 1171458| doi=10.1080/23311983.2016.1171458| s2cid = 114999767| doi-access = free}}</ref> settings mostly in colleges and universities.<ref>Rankin, M. (2010). [http://www.utdallas.edu/~mrankin/usweb/twitterconclusions.htm "Some general comments on the 'Twitter Experiment'"]</ref><ref>Grosseck & Holotescu (2008). [http://www.cblt.soton.ac.uk/multimedia/PDFsMM09/Can%20we%20use%20twitter%20for%20educational%20activities.pdf "Can we use Twitter for educational activities?"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120518012255/http://www.cblt.soton.ac.uk/multimedia/PDFsMM09/Can%20we%20use%20twitter%20for%20educational%20activities.pdf |date=May 18, 2012 }} Proceedings of the 4th International Scientific Conference: eLearning and Software forEducation, Bucharest, Romania.</ref> It has been used as a [[backchannel]] to promote student interactions, especially in large-lecture courses.<ref>Elavsky, CM, Mislan, C & Elavsky, S (2011). When talking less is more: exploring outcomes of Twitter usage in the large-lecture hall. ''Learning, Media and Technology'' Volume 36, Issue 3.</ref> Research has found that using Twitter in college courses helps students communicate with each other and faculty, promotes informal learning, allows shy students a forum for increased participation, increases student engagement, and improves overall course grades.<ref>Junco, R., Heiberger, G., & Loken, E. (2011). [http://blog.reyjunco.com/pdf/JuncoHeibergerLokenTwitterEngagementGrades.pdf "The effect of Twitter on college student engagement and grades"]. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 27(2), 119β132. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120508093835/http://blog.reyjunco.com/pdf/JuncoHeibergerLokenTwitterEngagementGrades.pdf |date=May 8, 2012 }}</ref><ref>Junco, R., Elavsky, C. M., Heiberger, G. (2012). [http://reyjunco.com/wordpress/pdf/JuncoElavskyHeibergerTwitterCollaboration.pdf "Putting Twitter to the test: assessing outcomes for student collaboration, engagement, and success"]. British Journal of Educational Technology. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2012.01284.x {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120114952/http://reyjunco.com/wordpress/pdf/JuncoElavskyHeibergerTwitterCollaboration.pdf |date=January 20, 2013 }}</ref><ref>Ebner, Lienhardt, Rohs, & Meyer (2010). [http://www.cblt.soton.ac.uk/multimedia/PDFs10/micriblogs%20in%20higher%20education%20process%20orientated%20learning.pdf "Microblogs in Higher Education β A chance to facilitate informal and process-oriented learning?"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110626175108/http://www.cblt.soton.ac.uk/multimedia/PDFs10/micriblogs%20in%20higher%20education%20process%20orientated%20learning.pdf |date=June 26, 2011 }} ''Computers & Education'', 55, 92β100.</ref> Twitter has been an increasingly growing in the field of education as an effective tool that can be used to encourage learning and idea, or knowledge sharing, in and outside the classroom.<ref name="Carrie-2015">{{Cite journal|last1=Carrie|first1=Ross|last2=Maninger|first2=Robert|last3=LaPrairie|first3=Kimberly|last4=Sullivan|first4=Sam|date=Spring 2015|title=The Use of Twitter in the Creation of Educational Professional Learning Opportunities|url=https://dc.swosu.edu/aij/vol5/iss1/6|journal=Administrative Issues Journal: Connecting Education, Practice, and Research.|volume= 5|pages=55β76|issn=2153-7615|doi=10.5929/2015.5.1.7|id={{ERIC|EJ1062476}}|doi-access=free}}</ref> By using or creating hashtags, students and educators are able to communicate under specific categories of their choice to enhance and promote education. A broad example of a hashtag used in education is "edchat", to communicate with other teachers and people using that hashtag. Once teachers find someone they want to talk to, they can either direct message the person or narrow down the hashtag to make the topic of the conversation more specific,w using hashtags for scichat (science), engchat (English), sschat (social studies).<ref name="Carrie-2015" /> In a 2011 study, researchers found that young peoples use of Twitter helped to improve relationships with teachers, encourage interactive learning, and ultimately lead to high grades.<ref name="Carrie-2015" /> In the same study, it was found that out of a group of 158 educators, 92% agreed that the reason they use Twitter is because of how user-friendly it is,<ref name="Carrie-2015" /> another 86% agreed that they started and continue using Twitter because of how easy it is to learn, and finally,<ref name="Carrie-2015" /> 93% said they use Twitter because it is free. People found sifting through large amounts of data to be challenging; however, with the simple nature of Twitter, large amount of information became easily accessible.<ref name="Greenhow-2012">{{Cite journal|last1=Greenhow|first1=Christine|last2=Gleason|first2=Benjamin|date=October 3, 2012|title=Twitteracy: Tweeting as a New Literacy Practice|journal=The Educational Forum|volume= 76|issue=4|pages=464β478|doi=10.1080/00131725.2012.709032|s2cid=145800002}}</ref> Much of this simplicity comes from the use of the hashtag and the intuitive nature of how Twitter as a microblogging site operates.<ref name="Greenhow-2012" /> These features help to promote education outside the classroom in a global setting where students and educators are easily able to create, connect, and share knowledge. This ultimately promotes growth and learning among students and educators, not just in the classroom, but virtually and around the world. ====Public figures==== [[Jonathan Zittrain]], professor of Internet law at [[Harvard Law School]], said that "the qualities that make Twitter seem inane and half-baked are what makes it so powerful."<ref>{{registration required|date=February 2011}} {{Cite news| first=Noam | last=Cohen | title=Twitter on the Barricades: Six Lessons Learned | date=June 20, 2009 | work=[[The New York Times]] | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/weekinreview/21cohenweb.html?_r=1&hp | access-date = June 21, 2009 }}</ref> In that same vein, and with Sigmund Freud in mind, political communications expert Matthew Auer observed that well-crafted tweets by public figures often deliberately mix trivial and serious information so as to appeal to all three parts of the reader's personality: the id, ego, and superego.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Matthew |last1=Auer |title=The Policy Sciences of Social Media |journal=Policy Studies Journal |year=2011 |volume=39 |issue=4 |pages=709β736 |doi=10.1111/j.1541-0072.2011.00428.x |s2cid=153590593 }}</ref> The poets [[Mira Gonzalez]] and [[Tao Lin]] published a book titled ''Selected Tweets'' featuring selections of their tweets over some eight years.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thefader.com/2015/06/08/mira-gonzalez-tao-lin-twitter-interview-with-juliet-escoria|title=Mira Gonzalez And Tao Lin's Selected Tweets Is Deeper Than It Seems|publisher=The Fader|date=June 8, 2015|last=Escoria|first=Julia|access-date=January 6, 2021}}</ref> The novelist [[Rick Moody]] wrote a short story for Electric Literature called "Some Contemporary Characters", composed entirely of tweets.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Rick Moody's Twitter Short Story Draws Long List of Complaints|url=https://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2009/12/01/rick-moodys-twitter-short-story-draws-long-list-of-complaints/|date=December 1, 2009|work=[[Wall Street Journal]]|access-date=May 19, 2012|first=Steven|last=Kurutz}}</ref> Many commentators have suggested that Twitter radically changed the format of reporting due to instant, short, and frequent communication.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Impact of Twitter on Journalism {{!}} Off Book|url=https://ca.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/2c19b182-83df-4168-b61b-158d993e8de2/the-impact-of-twitter-on-journalism/|access-date=January 31, 2021|website=PBS LearningMedia}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Chamberlain|first=Craig|title=How has Twitter changed news coverage?|url=https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/267046|access-date=January 31, 2021|website=news.illinois.edu}}</ref> According to ''[[The Atlantic]]'' writers Benjamin M. Reilly and Robinson Meyer, Twitter has an outsized impact on the public discourse and media. "Something happens on Twitter; celebrities, politicians and journalists talk about it, and it's circulated to a wider audience by Twitter's algorithms; journalists write about the dustup." This can lead to an argument on a Twitter feed looking like a "debate roiling the country... regular people are left with a confused, agitated view of our current political discourse".<ref>{{Cite web|date=February 12, 2020|title=Twitter Is Not as Important as Journalists Make It Seem|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/letters/archive/2020/02/twitter-is-bad-for-the-news/605782/|access-date=January 31, 2021|website=The Atlantic}}</ref> In a 2018 article in the ''[[Columbia Journalism Review]]'', Matthew Ingram argued much the same about Twitter's "oversized role" and that it promotes immediacy over newsworthiness.<ref name="Ingram-2021">{{Cite web|title=Do journalists pay too much attention to Twitter?|url=https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/journalists-on-twitter-study.php|access-date=January 31, 2021|website=Columbia Journalism Review}}</ref> In some cases, inauthentic and provocative tweets were taken up as common opinion in mainstream articles. Writers in several outlets unintentionally cited the opinions of Russian [[Internet Research Agency]]-affiliated accounts.<ref name="Ingram-2021" /><ref name="Luk">{{Cite web|title=Most major outlets have used Russian tweets as sources for partisan opinion: study|url=https://www.cjr.org/analysis/tweets-russia-news.php|access-date=January 31, 2021|website=Columbia Journalism Review}}</ref> ====World leaders==== [[File:Donald Trump Facebook Twitter post 19679418 10159419638630725 2833632475130915488.jpg|thumb|280px|Donald Trump's Twitter post]] World leaders and their diplomats have taken note of Twitter's rapid expansion and have been increasingly utilizing [[Twitter diplomacy]], the use of Twitter to engage with foreign publics and their own citizens. US Ambassador to Russia, [[Michael A. McFaul]] has been attributed as a pioneer of international Twitter diplomacy. He used Twitter after becoming ambassador in 2011, posting in English and Russian.<ref>{{Cite news |last=LΓ€ndler |first=Mark |title=In the Scripted World of Diplomacy, a Burst of Tweets |work=International New York Times |access-date=April 28, 2014 |date=February 4, 2014 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/05/world/middleeast/in-the-scripted-world-of-diplomacy-a-burst-of-tweets.html }}</ref> On October 24, 2014, [[Queen Elizabeth II]] sent her first tweet to mark the opening of the [[London Science Museum]]'s Information Age exhibition.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29754628|title=Queen's first tweet.|newspaper=BBC News|date=October 24, 2014|last1=Cellan-Jones|first1=Rory}}</ref> A 2013 study by website Twiplomacy found that 153 of the 193 countries represented at the [[United Nations]] had established government Twitter accounts.<ref name="twiplomacy">{{cite web|publisher=Twiplomacy.com|title=Twiplomacy Study 2013 β International Organisations|url=http://twiplomacy.com|access-date=April 27, 2014}}</ref> The same study also found that those accounts amounted to 505 Twitter handles used by world leaders and their foreign ministers, with their tweets able to reach a combined audience of over 106 million followers.<ref name=twiplomacy /> According to an analysis of accounts, the heads of state of 125 countries and 139 other leading politicians have Twitter accounts that have between them sent more than 350,000 tweets and have almost 52 million followers. However, only 30 of these do their own tweeting, more than 80 do not subscribe to other politicians and many do not follow any accounts.<ref>John Heilprin ''Leaders all a twitter but few do own tweets'' [[The Advertiser (Adelaide)|The Advertiser]] July 28, 2012, Pg 64</ref> ====Religion==== {{As of|2015|October}}, more than twenty [[Cardinal (Catholicism)|Roman Catholic cardinals]] managed active Twitter accounts,<ref>{{cite web|url = https://sixfortyone.co.uk/list-cardinals-twitter-october-2015/|title = A List of Cardinals on Twitter (October 2015)|publisher = sixfortyone.co.uk|access-date = October 12, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160119175258/https://sixfortyone.co.uk/list-cardinals-twitter-october-2015/|archive-date = January 19, 2016|df = mdy-all}}</ref> nine of whom were [[Cardinal electors for the papal conclave, 2013|cardinal electors]] for the [[2013 Papal conclave]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Tweeting Cardinals Share Pre-Conclave Thoughts|url=https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2013/03/tweeting-cardinals-share-pre-conclave-thoughts/|access-date=September 24, 2013|newspaper=ABC News|date=March 6, 2013|first=Alyssa|last=Newcomb}}</ref> [[Pope Benedict XVI]]'s Twitter account was set up in 2012. {{As of|2022|April}}, his successor, [[Pope Francis]], has 18.7 million followers of his Twitter account (@Pontifex).<ref>{{cite news|title=The reason why the Pope has a Twitter and not a Facebook account|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/the-reason-why-the-pope-has-a-twitter-and-not-a-facebook-account-9426746.html|access-date=April 11, 2016|newspaper=The Independent|date=May 23, 2014|first=Linda|last=Sharkey}}</ref>{{update inline|date=February 2022}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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