Today I discovered a website related to Twitter that I find absolutely amazing!
It's called What the trend, and its purpose is to list the most popular tweets, showing people's favorite subject on Twitter.
The week in review caught my attention, it's a page that provides a top 20 of Twitter's trends of the week.
I noticed that there are three kinds of tweets:
Those about the news
The week in review actually gives an overview of the news.
It shows that people talk about April's Fool, Easter, Earth Hour, but also Ricky Martin coming out of the closet! The subjects of the tweets are topical, which once again proves that Twitter became a full-fledged news platform.
Those about virtual activities
Those about virtual activities
Many trends are about new ways to entertain that are specific to social media.
For example, the number one is sharing music through the network, and the third is to list other people to follow. This category of tweets is interesting because it shows that social media can lead to new activities.
Those about people's feelings
Sometimes, the tweets are nothing but the reflection of human's behavior. And that's the funniest kind of tweet! There are things I didn't even realize people talked about on Twitter. Not only whatthetrend.com reveals popular tweets, it also reveals human nature! Indeed, twitterers share the mood they're in. The number 9 trend of the week is "Don't you hate when" and number 11 "I love". People also use Twitter as a way to share their own vision by saying things others should stop doing, or claiming one thing is nolonger cool.
I think this website is an incredible tool for a sociological approach of social media, it tells a lot about the behaviors of the users. Being aware of its existence helps me to accomplish my mission as a blogger: reflecting about the impact of social media on society.
This made me ask myself a question that I can't seem to answer since I don't have any hindsight:
This made me ask myself a question that I can't seem to answer since I don't have any hindsight:
Do social media change us by creating a virtual version of ourselves or are they just a reflection of who we truly are?
And by who we are I mean cranky human beings!
We might know the answer in a few years, but since I don't like to wait, can you take a guess?
Hey Liv !
ReplyDeleteI think people are creating through social media a kind of meliorated picture of themselves because the media gives us the opportunity to describe ourselves and to stage our social life. social networks cannot be the mirror of our deep in side and they don't have to. Yet, they sometimes help us to learn who people would have wanted to be ideally. And that's an important clue !