Social networking has come a long way. In middle school, MySpace was all the rage. It was the perfect way for overly excited pre-teens to shove blinding glitter backgrounds and inoffensive pop music in their friends’ faces. High schoolers graduated to Facebook, which offered a more mature layout while still giving the opportunity to force-feed classmates everything from passive-aggressive status updates to moderately more offensive pop music.
But where does Twitter fit in? It’s Facebook stripped down to its core principles, and although that may seem like a step back, Twitter is growing more and more popular. To understand why, Drops of Ink jumped into the world of “trending” and retweeted it here.
@UpAndDown7 “I like Twitter because people are themselves on Twitter and you don’t have to worry about ‘likes’ and comments. I got one because you can say anything and not have to put much thought into it. It seems like a lot less judgment,” replied senior Grace Dalton.
Twitter was created in March 2006 and now has accumulated over 300 million users. Since it started, the number of new Twitter users has increased to almost 300,000 new accounts per day. Approximately 300 of those users attend Libertyville High School.
Nowadays, Twitter is extremely accessible. Students can log on through their computer, text their tweet, or use the Twitter app on their mobile device.
@cbaybay “I always use my phone to tweet,” said senior Casey Behling.
A fair amount of tw00bs (new twitter users) began using Twitter because of the increased amount of users at LHS or to follow their favorite celebrities.
@KJyaDig “I wanted to be more connected with my favorite music artists,” enthused senior Kevin Jungmann.
Celebrities like @ladygaga, @justinbieber, and @KimKardashian are engaged in the Twitterverse and have collected over 11 million followers each. These celebrities tweet anything from inspirational quotes to updates on their exhilarating lives #halfkidding
@kgibbles21 “I’ve learned that reality stars are actually in tune with themselves by using Twitter,” stated senior Kayla Gibbs.
Each tweet contains up to 140 characters of pure brilliance or stupidity. The user can write anything they like but, unlike Facebook, their followers cannot ‘like’ or comment on their tweet, eliminating the fear that one’s Facebook status won’t gather a lot of ‘likes.’ Instead, they can reply to the tweet by tagging them in their next tweet.
@KBorcia “It’s not annoying like Facebook and it’s a great way to relieve stress about things,” said senior Kaeleigh Borcia.
Twitter users tweet about anything from pointless babble to what’s currently happening in the world.
@cbaybay “I tweet usually every hour to share what I’m thinking because people follow me for a reason. I usually tweet anything from my frustrations to things that make me happy like #HarryPotter,” said Behling.
Although Twitter is definitely trending here at LHS, not all students have joined the bandwagon.
“I made one but I only go on it when I’m bored at work. I just haven’t had the time to delete it yet,” shared senior Kelly Sloan.
So if you find yourself agitated by the overwhelming amount of Facebook spam and obnoxious wall posts between the giddy freshmen that take up your News Feed, maybe it’s time to create a Twitter #justsaying