QotW: What are you doing now?

What are you doing?

This is a common question that we utter more than once a day. We might be chatting online or on the telephone, and we almost never fail to ask this question to the person who we are communicating with. Now, there is a community that is created based on this question. Innovative.

Twitter certainly has an interesting concept. We tend to be curious about what our friends are doing at a particular time, and by getting them to share their current activities, we learn more about them. Although it is strange to randomly share what you are doing, after a while answering the exact same question seems to come almost naturally. Twitter allows people to immediately send out what they are thinking.

Is Twitter really an online community? According to Twitter’s own home page, it considers itself as a community. An online community is a group of people that may or may not mainly communicate or interact via the Internet. (Virtual Community, 2007) However, it is not easy to completely describe how an online community works and what it represents. It is not necessary that participants of an online community feel a strong bond towards each other. (Virtual Community, 2007) However, a relationship is formed through their continuous interactions. Twitter allows people to interact with one another online, and therefore allow people to form bonds, whether strong or not, with one another. In that sense, Twitter is an online community.

One of the most significant things in any community, whether online or offline, is communication. (Fernback & Thompson, 1995) It is practically impossible to maintain a relationship without any form of communication. This is because there is no effort taking place to organize the social relationships that form the community. Fernback and Thompson also feel that communities can be limited by boundaries, and these communities can be created based on common interests and people.

At the same time, sociologists also realize that distance does not put a hamper on forming communities. Transport and technology provide people the means for expanding their communities beyond just their neighborhood. In online communities, people are not restricted by their physical boundaries. But at the same time, online communities have a “home” where all users can meet and interact.

However, Twitter may not be for everyone. It can be annoying after awhile to answer the same question over and over and over again. Although it may be interesting to read what others are doing, it might be taxing to let others know what you are doing. In a way, it seems like Twitter is just another MSN. You are chatting with your friends and adding new ones.

Twitter may be a unique experience initially. As an online community, it is similar to Friendster and MSN, but the features are limited. It would not be surprising however, if it upgrades features to be more like a combination of both Friendster and MSN.


Resources:

Fernback.J & Thompson.B (May 1995) Virtual Communities: Abort, Retry, Failure? Retrieved on March 15, 2007, from http://www.rheingold.com/texts/techpolitix/VCcivil.html
Virtual community. (2007, March 7). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 07:52, March 15, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Virtual_community&oldid=113387826