Changing Media II

Remember that annoying MySpace friend who abused the bulletin function? You had nothing against this person, but you un-friended him/her specifically because theirs was an oppressive blog-slaught of posts on the most minute details of their lives. Nothing significant or quotable, just fifty posts a day on the finer points of The Bachelor and relationship vagueries. Well that person got their due with Twitter, the micro-blogging social network that ranks third in membership worldwide behind Facebook and Myspace.

What makes Twitter special is how it functions as the antithesis of its "superior" networks. There is little in the way of customization: an avatar and a background. Posts are restricted to 140 characters or less. You can't run ads or provide information on the focus of your Twitter. There's no throwing Chris Brown, giving flair or sharing flowers; it's just raw nuggets of your life. There are prominent users such as Oprah Winfrey, Dave Matthews, and Barack Obama, who use Twitter to speak to fans directly. But Twitter best distinguishes itself by encouraging users to post from a mobile device, which has proven in some cases to be life-saving.

As a cultural phenomenon, Twitter embodies the American penchant for offering specialized versions of the same product. If Facebook is an herbal-infused, deluxe fruit drink and MySpace the gaudy, neon-emblazoned energy elixir, then Twitter is the Coke Zero of social networks. It emphasizes boiled-down functionality over myriad distraction. That stripping back of conventions reveals that we have more in common with that MySpace bulletin nazi than we ever wanted to admit. No matter what you take away from the Interweb, the only you thing you can't remove is you.