Twitter Comes of Age

Twitter... Twitter... Twitter! It's even more in the media than the last time I wrote a blog post about it. I think it's a fascinating phenomenon to be honest and have two blog entries about it.
Just a few days ago, Ashton Kutcher realized that he almost had as many Twitter followers as CNN Breaking News! Kutcher, @aplusk, had more trhan 800,000 followers and was trailing CNN by thousands of followers. He decided that it was pretty awesome he was the 3rd most followed on Twitter, after CNN and Britney Spears, and so he came up with a challenge!
Ashton asked his fans and the world wide web to follow him on Twitter so that he could reach 1,000,000 followers before CNN did. No one had that many followers. He posted a video on the Internet and made it clear he was serious about it.
CNN was quick to respond with CNN's Rick Sanchez addressing the challenge mocking Kutcher's notion and Larry King making a funny video telling Kutcher not to feel bad, but there was no way one man could stand up to a "gorge network."
Well, the man, albeit a famous one prevailed!
The news has been all a twitter the last couple of days and Asthon Kitcher and P. Diddy (Puff Daddy, Sean Combs, etc.), an other avid twitterer, appeared on Larry King Live to talk about the shift.
There has been a shift! How great? I don't know, but there has been a shift.
Traditional media is important, very important, but the times are changing and some people, many people want to also get Ashton Kutcher's insights and muses on life and the news. Granted, he's not a trained journalist, but most people realize that... they just want fresh perspectives.
There has been so much talk about twitter later that the queen of talk, Oprah Winfrey, decided to jump aboard with her own account, @oprah. Already, she has amassed hundreds of thousands of followers, with more than 35,000 in the first day.
This will impact the way many people get their news. People and with the way trends works, and more people will follow the early adopters,twitter will become a more important social networking site and source of information. People will get news updates on their smart phones and get snippets of information that will shape their view of the news.
They will not only get news bulletins from news organizations, but opinion and reaction to the news from celebrities, opinion columnists, bloggers and their own friends.
It's a true shift... it begins a conversation. There is a danger in this though and that's what the next blog post will address.
What say you? Is this really a shift? Or am I giving Ashton Kutcher to much credit for his shtick? He did say he would donate 10,000 nets to prevent malaria in Africa--that's a good thing either way!

originally posted April 18, 2009

Twitter Revolution

Twitter... Twitter... Twitter.

A word I've heard often in the last year or so... Rick Sanchez and Don Lemon both "twitter" on their CNN newscasts. Celebrities have been twittering for a while also letting the whole world now about all the minutiae in their lives. It's even said that Jennifer Aniston became annoyed with boyfriend's John Mayer's Twitter "addiction

Well, after hearing so much about Twitter and the media and from tech-savvy friends I decided to jump aboard a few months ago.

It's an interesting proposition... think text message meets blog... you got 140 characters to share an idea and express to all your followers... aka Twitter friends who sign up to read all your updates.

It's so interesting, that some British school officials are considering teaching students not only about the Bard upon Avon, but also about Twitter devotees such as Ashton Kutcher.

At the moment friends who have Twitter are following me as are an interesting array of people in the U.S. and around the world who I do not know, but am "getting to know" maybe.

Some say Twitter has reached its peak, jumped the shark while other say the Twitter Revolution is very beginning. I tend to agree with the latter.

On my Blackberry, thanks to Twitterberry, I get to read all my friends updates. But I only get to follow my real-life friends, but journalists, bloggers and news organizations. I get updates from them giving me fascinating links or updating me on the latest story. It's like I'm in a newsroom with the AP wire going crazy, but in a whole new way.

That's why I say this is a revolution. You can receive media in a whole new way and that's exactly what living the "eLife" is all about! I look at my phone and know what just happened in places that are important to me... say CNN for world news, Salt Lake Tribune for Utah News, New York Times, for my "hometown's" news... big hometown i know... Le Monde, for French news (J'aime la France) or Colombia's El Tiempo, to know what's happening where my grandparents live.
I get links and then I can retweet them... RT... basically I can share what I got from one of my friends with my followers. I can also interact with them and they can read what I have to say on the subject. If they're real-life friends they'll read it and if they have thousands of followers they might not get to read it, but then again they might.

On CNN for example, during Sanchez's and Lemon's show many of the Twitter comments are actually read on the air!

It's changing news media in an incredible way where there is much more transparency and interaction.

It's fascinating and it's another example of social determinism. For those who choose to follow this new form of media and social networking they can be on top of things and be informed. It's using the internet and new technologies to our advantage.

So... follow me @edgarzuniga

For those who don't know Twitter speak that would be... create an account @ twitter.com and then follow me @ twitter.com/edgarzuniga

Since originally writing this media giants like Larry King and Oprah Winfrey have joined Twitter. Ms. Winfrey garnered more than 300,000 followers within a week.