Exactly 10 years ago, just before lunch, a young computer engineer was found in front of a computer. He had to write a message and had only 140 characters to do so. For the occasion, they went just fine: “Just setting up my twttr” wrote Jack Dorsey on what would soon would become Twitter. 10 years have passed since that time, a considerable time in the web world; not because Twitter still exists – indeed several portals and services have reached and surpassed, or even doubled, the decade of activity – but it turns out to be still relevant in our world. That, in some respects, it can be said to have been changed from the social network of chirps. Now, however, because of the Dorsey creature is the time to change itself.
The 10 years have always shown a sort of threshold of change for online services. Even the same Facebook, reached the seniority decade, has had to adapt to new audiences and new platforms in order to stay relevant in the online scene. Despite its strength, and although it is used by billions of people every month. For Twitter, the situation is even more complex, because if it is true that Facebook had already found its own identity, social twittering network has always struggled to find his real goal, with the result of becoming an amorphous platform and constantly changing.
a situation that has inevitably led to a meltdown of its success, also due to an inability to really make it monetized the platform and increase its user base. It is not difficult to imagine that the celebrations for the first decade will have a bitter aftertaste in the company’s headquarters. The point is that Twitter, as it is now, is scary. Addictive, it is “addictive”, but also generates anxiety and stress. For users with a few followers seems to scream to the wind, while those who manage to build a following you often must handle the criticism and controversy. The problem of the lack of a real target for Twitter is more serious than it seems: he wants to be a serious or funny platform? Useful or related to leisure? The lack of an answer to these questions has generated a climate of uncertainty that still does nothing but increase despite Twitter, although to a lesser extent compared to Facebook, be part of the daily life of millions of people.
a result that, though, is probably due to the memories of the golden age: Twitter is great because once famous people got in touch with users, authors readers and generated games based on the use of the hashtag. Twitter is nice because it was once beautiful, but now it’s just self-management. The growth of the numbers has led to an inevitable clean cut of the relationship with the important personality, which is now followed by a count of several tens of millions: impossible to directly manage. So the platform has gradually changed hands in a creature with a thousand personalities, where apparently all have equal importance. Now Twitter is a cauldron of criticism, controversy and brand jumping on the bandwagon of each hashtag success. But also of bullying and abuse, a problem that has become more and more severe among the twittering – with examples including Italian ones, such as outbursts of Gasparri – and that the company has to solve in the short term. The same Dick Costolo, former CEO of the company, had admitted that he did not know Twitter handle abuse and violence online.
The problem is that there has never been a hard-line in respect of this issue. Twitter is genuine, free and public, all fantastic terms but must confront the reality that even the trolls feel free to make bullying. As well as users feel free to write what they want. As Justine Sacco, a PR that in 2013, before getting on a plane, tweeted to his 170 followers: “I am going to Africa. I hope I do not get AIDS. Scherzo, they are white.” Arrived in Cape Town, the woman discovered that she had been dismissed by her employer and had received thousands of death threats and rape. The dismissal there, the story of Justine reveals two important elements: the lightness, shared with many others, with whom she has published a racist sentence and the huge shame that has resulted.
and such examples the social network it is now full: artists who make controversy between them, abuses and mass attacks on posts and people. But Twitter is great because before you could have calm conversations, because it was the instrument used to overturn totalitarian governments. The problem is that it is not true. The concept of “social revolutions” carried out during the riots in Moldova, Iran and the Arab Spring is a wonderful painting of Western society inundated with countless editorials on how much the company had become a kind of bogeyman for the dictatorships. The reality, however, is quite different: Twitter has been used, yes, both by the rebels who by satirical account, so as to force the authorities to censor the web to block the coordination, but to see Twitter as a tool that has allowed us in a revolution it is extremely unrealistic. Indeed, some critics these revolutions 2.0 because of their feeble resistance: the network of people who “participate” ideally is much higher, and also touches users outside of the country involved, but the bonds that are created are weak. It is easier to “participate” in revolutions, but it is more difficult to pass one message. So, five years after the Arab Spring, Egypt is ruled by the army chief and hardly a hashtag will save Syria. It seems excessive, then, define Twitter a tool to shake the foundations of society.
Even and above because just the difficult management of messages spread through social networks has led to a worrying second side of the same coin: one composed by the propaganda of terrorist groups that just in self and anarchy that now governs Twitter has found a new tool with which to make his message viral. An element highlighted by the fact that the administration has already closed about 125,000 accounts linked to jihadists who published propaganda and recruiting fighters leveraging chirps.
The real revolution of Twitter , the that has really changed the world, it is to be found elsewhere. Where Facebook has created a strong connection between people, Twitter has generated an unprecedented relationship between users and news, be it news, politics or related to the entertainment world. In 2016 it is more likely that a “breaking news” becomes viral on Twitter before being picked up by the newspapers; They are the same journalists to recount the events live, as well as the eyewitnesses have now the opportunity to have an audience of their own, with the ability to send text, images and video in real time. The comment of TV programs has become a fundamental tool to bring together people with similar passions and, above all, an extremely important vehicle for companies with which present users with the most “intimate products in contexts.” Despite this, however, the platform still does not find a proper form of monetization, as well as reveals great difficulty in finding his way forward really.
We have tried with ‘ application for the direct video Periscope, with videos of Vine, the algorithm change and an ever sharper focus to the live events, both TV shows and sporting events, real quest workhorse ‘ years ago in Italy. But as the platform can move forward “project”? When it decides to seriously change, countering the idea that Twitter is just a tool for so-called “power users”, ie accounts with many followers, while others just have to shout to the wind? When you choose to make really significant changes and not counter-productive as the removal of the limit of 140 characters (previously denied by Dorsey, but it was definitely in the plans of the company)? 10 are many and underlined Twitter’s ability to stay afloat despite the many difficulties he faced. But now it’s time to stop trying to change the world and find a way to change himself.
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