Blog 8: Twitter Reflection

Blog #8: Twitter Reflection 

Social media has played a major role throughout my life. I cannot remember a point in time where social media wasn’t a prominent aspect within the society. Twitter, in particular, is an app that users either love or hate. When the app first came out, I remember not really understanding it but using it because it was the “shiny and new” social media app. The app itself has grown over the years and has its own culture in a sense. Meme sharing, cancel culture, political stories, and many more are some of the main uses of the app. Not only to mention the many movements placed within hashtags themselves. Twitter, as a social media platform, plays a large role within society but also within this course. The daily tweeting brought a lot to my attention that I have not realized in the past when using social media. 

I have never really been the biggest fan of Twitter until college. I feel as if college put a “funnier twist” on everything posted on Twitter because everyone is just as broke and sad as you are. In relation to this class, I really enjoyed the experience. I’m not going to lie- at first, it was a bit annoying, and I found myself forgetting to tweet at times at the beginning of this experience. After the first couple of weeks, it began to almost become a habit to tweet. I found it informative to hear the class’ perspective on particular readings, or just on life in general. This experience became more entertaining after being sent home because it felt as if everyone was back in the classroom again. I feel as if everyone’s content became more creative because of pure boredom, but also the increase of time to “come up” with fun and more interactive tweets. Also, the live-tweeting experience was one I have never been a part of and is something I really enjoyed. Similar to my live-tweeting encounter, Harrington, Highfield, and Bruns (2013) mention that Twitter itself does not replace the existing media channels, but essentially complements them. The Scandal episode that we watched virtually as a class felt as if I was watching with a large group, but also pointed out statements that I would have never thought of. Not only was the live-tweeting a source of entertainment but as well as information about the media we were consuming. 

Although tweeting every day was enjoyable, there were times when I struggled with it. At the start of the semester, I was struggling with reminding myself to tweet. Twitter was never an app that I was on daily like I was with Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook for example. Tweeting every day for this class almost made me realize how informative and entertaining Twitter actually is! Another struggle I faced was the lack of creativity within my tweets as the weeks went on. At times, I felt as if I was repeating information I had previously tweeted. This lack of creativity sheds light on a portion of social media that I have not thought about before. It allowed me to think about the content that I posted into depth, rather than creating a “quick post”. Although this appeared to be a negative effect when tweeting it will allow more creative content in the future. 

Another idea that I learned is that social media may not be the ideal job for me! Creating and maintaining content was a struggle within this course, and I can never imagine making a career out of it, but I now have a new opinion about influencers. Creating new and “fresh” content is definitely a struggle and I caught myself leaning towards making a poll tweet when I ran out of ideas. Also, I feel as if this experiment allowed me to pay attention to more tweets. For example, instead of scrolling through Twitter at a fast pace, I feel as if this experiment allowed me to slow do and digest a lot of new information. Also, incorporating Twitter (or any social media) into a college course is the easiest way to relate to any college student. As I previously mentioned that at first, it was difficult to tweet, it was also strange to “mix” my schoolwork and my social life at first. At the start of the semester, it felt very forced, but eventually, it felt as if I was tweeting something I would say outside of the classroom. 

In conclusion, this experience was overall very enjoyable. Although, I struggled at the beginning of the semester with tweeting consistently for a couple of days- I would give myself a 45/50. After being sent home for quarantine I also believe that my content got better as the days went on. I felt as if I was much more creative and had a lot more time to come up with tweets. Overall, tweeting for a college course was an experience that I will never forget! 
References: 
Bruns, A., Harrington, S., & Highfield, T. (2013). More than a backchannel: Twitter and television. Journal of Audience & Reception Studies. 10(1), 405-409.