Before you read this article I should tell you this. I know that I am strange. Now having gotten that out of the way, here is what I did this week. I made a list of all the apps that I have on my phone, my tablet and on my computer. Then I gave them ratings depending on how much and how often I use those apps. The surprising fact I found out was that out of the 230-odd apps I have installed, I use more than 200 very rarely, or not at all. The unsurprising fact was that the most used app on all three devices is Twitter. Not surprising because it is the first app I go to when I reach for my phone when I open my eyes, it is the app that I seem to keep checking every two minutes throughout the day and it is the app I last use before going to sleep. I spend two hours a day, every day on Twitter.
For a resolutely asocial animal, it may sound strange that I spend so much time on a social network. In fact, it is not that strange. If Twitter is being a social network it is because of the lack of a better name. Like a social network it will let you keep in touch with friends and family. But it also brings you the latest real-time news. It lets you talk to complete strangers on the other side of the planet about that TV show that you are watching. It connects you to everyone from Barack Obama to your local councillor. It will bring you the latest trends. It shows you what the world likes and what it doesn’t like. Is there a new iPhone? Breaking Bad finale? Terrorist attack in Kenya? Richard Dawkins has a new theory? What does Manmohan Singh think about twerking? Twitter has answers to all of it. And for a super news junkie like me who needs to know everything about everything that is happening everywhere there is no better source.
As Twitter goes for an initial public offering on the way to becoming a public limited company and plans to raise $1 billion to become the biggest tech IPO since Facebook’s a year ago, it is very interesting to see how far it has come in the last seven years and how integral it has become to the public life. When Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s founder, started the service it was called twttr. The idea of confining whatever you want to say in 140 characters proved so popular that within two years Twitter hit the million-user milestone. Today it has 218 million active users, more than 75 per cent of whom are on mobile devices. CNET describes today’s Twitter as a ‘town square, where people congregate to share the latest news, commentary and gossip in real-time, shaped and condensed by the 140-character tweet limit.’
Twitter has also become a very important communication tool primarily because unlike Facebook and Google, it does not mind if its users are anonymous and upholds the principle of free speech most vehemently. This means that for everyone from Barack Obama and Hassan Rouhani to the Taliban, it has become an important tool to get their message out. As advertisers also find out the monetary value of Twitter and the great engagement levels possible on the platform, Twitter is only going to grow. With proper planned use of all the money it is raising it is going to be the most important communication tool the world has ever seen.
The writer is a tech geek. Email: articles@theadarsh.net