Twiddley-dee-dee tweet tweet

Twitter... 140 characters, celebrities telling us where they are/what they're doing/what they're wearing, politicians attempting to connect with their voters and now the pope preaching digi-prayers. I'll admit, I'm a bit of Social Media addict. I name 'work' an accessory and enabler, but they truth is I'm hooked. You may not be there in person, but there's something about just reading through others' cyber-words or trawling through celeb's Instagrams that makes you feel connected. As Henry Jenkins states- our society reflects a participatory culture- we need to feel involved.

Here's a vid where Jenkins discussing our current media landscape.

He talks of 'Convergence Culture' (and for those who, like me, were a little confused..click here for a slide show - a 'Convergence Culture for Dummies', if you will) where old and new media are combined in one single creation.

Whilst it is an ongoing process within the a media sphere- an independent example is Twitter- where the news and celebrity gossip, previously only found in Newspapers and Magazines and on TV and radio, are now published in real-time, straight onto Twitter. Is this a good thing? Well, yes and no. It means that the power relations within the media sphere is changing- the public can now post and comment on news, reducing the significance of the big name media giants. Twitter is quicker and cheaper. Though, since anyone can post, the credibility of some claims are questionable.. For example, as the International Business Times reported, there have been several 'death of a celebrity' hoaxes during Twitter's lifespan (click here to read about them all).

Not to worry though, these annoying trolls will give up soon enough - Even though it has the potential to assist in communication during crisis and boost celeb and political followers, Twitter is still a fad. According to a study conducted by Nielson Online, which focuses on “Twitter Quitters,” (people who start a Twitter account but then fail to return the next month) it looks like it’s popularity may soon fade. As the study points out, Twitter has a very low retention rate, just 40%. Meaning “there simply aren’t enough new users to make up for defecting ones after a certain point,” (David Martin, VP of Primary Research at Nielsen Online). With its current retention rate, Martin calculates the service could never reach more than 10% of the Internet population, even in a best-case scenario. Just as a comparison..even in the Early days of Myspace and Facebook, their retention rate (as Martin points out), hovered around the 70% mark.

So unless Twitter figures out a way to get users addicted, its a goner.
-Back to twiddling thumbs during those free minutes of the day. Or..there's always Facebook?