The Unknown Writing

 

Tweets are sent at a rate of about six thousand per second, which equates to about fifty million tweets per day (Weil). Each tweet being methodically thought out by the author, specifically to draw the most attention to their tweet. The genre works very similarly to a blog, where audiences can follow people and pages that appeal to their interests. However, followers can retweet others tweets, so that the followers of the original follower may see it. This ability for Twitter users to show new content to their followers differentiates Twitter from all other social media websites. Unlike Facebook, which has become known as a place where people go to rudely rant and push their ideas on others, Twitter allows their users to show their ideas, while also restricting them to one hundred forty characters, which keeps the audience interested. Although Twitter has become a form of spreading ideas to masses of people, the argument has been made that Twitter should not be considered as a new form of writing. The soldiers of this side of the debate argue that tweets do not go through editors and the publishing sequence and, therefore, do not count as writing. However, because of the ability of Twitter users to touch the emotions of their audience and quickly give out and collect useful information, Twitter should be considered as a form of writing.

First, Twitter users are able pull emotional strings in their audience’s heart. For example, social media has recently been used to spread the idea that police officers in America are racist against the African-American population of the country. Any user can search for these tweets and retweet them so that all of their followers can see those tweets. Because of the ability for each user to retweet a tweet, tweets can reach thousands of people, even if the original tweeter does not have thousands of followers. For example, in Figure 1, I sent out a tweet that was meant to be a spoof on the current political race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Although my twitter only has 265 followers, my tweet was read by over 5,000 people. That being said, not all 5,000 people were emotionally touched by this tweet and were moved to make a large social movement, I know that I touched at least a hundred people, because they liked the tweet, as shown in Figure 1.  The like feature allows readers to easily show the author of the tweet that they liked or can relate to said tweet. Meanwhile, through only 36 retweets, my audience expanded from under 300 people to 5,000 people. This is very similar to the rise of the traditional author. An author who uses the traditional method of writing (i.e. papers, poems, or novels), would write multiple works before their name gets spread through the market. For instance, Ray Bradbury wrote multiple novels and poems before getting it right with Fahrenheit 451. The novels before Fahrenheit 451 may not have been well known, but they put Bradbury’s name in the market, which led to his name being spread around between friends, eventually leading to more sales through friends recommending him to their other friends. The process of finding the right tweet follows almost the exact same pattern, starting with small tweets that may go completely unnoticed. These tweets are followed by tweets that may get retweeted a time or two, which is similar to the readers of Bradbury telling their friends about his works. Finally, a tweet or two pull the right heart strings and could lead to a rather large audience. Therefore, tweets work in the same way as the traditional way of writing to bring attention to their authors through the emotions of their readers.

 Figure 1

In addition to touching the emotions of the audience, twitter also eases the communication between the authors and the readers. To explain further, Twitter gives the option for users to give polls to their followers. These polls work the same way as regular tweets in that they can be retweeted to reach larger audiences. These polls allow the author to quickly read his audience, and determine how they feel, without having to sort through multiple comments or emails. These polls could have an affect on what content the twitter publishes. For example, in Figure 2, the Twitter user could identify that a majority of his audience are Pittsburgh Steelers or Baltimore Ravens fans. This capability works so much better than the method traditional authors have used, that the authors have started creating Twitters for themselves. So, in a way, Twitter actually works better than the traditional methods of writing.

 Figure 2
As a direct result of all of these similarities, Twitter should be thought of as a form of writing, especially considering the fact that Twitter allows for an easier way of talking with an author’s audience. The best way to sum this argument up was made by Dennis Baron, a linguist, in his essay on the evolution of writing. Baron explains that, “…the computer is simply the latest step in a long line of writing technologies” (693). Although this quote directly references to the invention of the computer, the reader can infer that all of the inventions that use the computer fall under the same category. Twitter has become next in this long line that Baron refers to. Just like the computer, people who refer to Twitter as a new form of writing are looked at as eccentric (Baron 695). However, Twitter has become the face of this generation’s writing form, and must be the newest form of writing, as this generation does not do nearly as much traditional writing as the generations before.

Works Cited

Baron, Dennis. “From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technologies.” Writing about Writing: A College Reader. By Elizabeth A. Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 690-709. Print.

Best Sports Polls (BestSportsPolIs). “Based On Previous Results, What Is The Best Rivalry In The NFL?”. 20 Jul 2016, 6:01 p.m. Tweet.

Hagan, Garrett (garretthagan_). “Is your refridgerator running? If so, I might vote for it.” 20 July 2016, 8:27 a.m. Tweet.

Weil, Kevin. “Measuring Tweets.” Twitter Blogs. Twitter, 22 Feb. 2010. Web. 26 July 2016.