There are few things that I completely treasure. For some inexplicable reason, everything for me comes with a caveat, something that prohibits me from fully embracing its excellence. The Miami Heat was the best team in basketball last season, but don’t speak to me about it until LeBron wins his sixth title. Arrested Development may be the funniest television show to hit the air, but the movie will likely be a letdown. This past year, however, I finally found something I adore wholeheartedly. And, unlike with any previous muse, I’m not afraid to admit it. I unconditionally love Twitter.
Before I come off as a pretentious social media advocate, I should confess that at first, I was reluctant to join Twitter and engage in such a public space; I thought Facebook was enough. I had the impression that Twitter was used by people who shared their unwanted thoughts and exact whereabouts, things that weren’t on the top of my priority list. My family was definitely a proponent of this opinion. When Twitter took off, there were countless dinner conversations about its stupidity. “Why do I care when Jennifer Lopez uses the washroom?” my sister asked repeatedly.
But at some point, I began ignoring my family’s disdain and entered the Twitterverse without their blessing. I made an account and began following my favourite athletes, musicians, writers, and comedians, and was exposed to a wealth of instant information. Ryan and Kelly from The Office are best friends in real life? Twitter confirms. Kevin Durant took a picture of Russell Westbrook sleeping on the team bus? He did! Thanks, Twitter.
But Twitter is not used exclusively as a platform to discuss our guilty pleasures and superficial opinions. It is also useful during landmark events. Along with millions of others, I found out about Osama Bin Laden’s capture and death long before it was reported on television. It was as if Bin Laden himself tweeted that he was done for. Though this need for immediate information can seem unnecessary—so what if I found out about Bin Laden’s death an hour late?—there’s something valuable about Twitter’s ability to spread news quickly.
For example, Toronto Blue Jays’ star Brett Lawrie was present at the Eaton Centre shooting in Toronto this past June. Lawrie has over 100,000 followers on Twitter, and as one the Jays’ most popular players, thousands of those followers are Torontonians. His warnings were retweeted hundreds of times, providing public awareness to people who may not have been following him. The instant spread of news kept mall-goers aware in a time of chaos, and perhaps even prevented people from going to the mall. For that, we should be grateful to have access to such a platform.
According to an article in Forbes Magazine this past May, 31 per cent of adults aged 18-24 use Twitter, up 13 per cent from the previous year. I read that statistic as: 69 per cent of you don’t know what you’re missing. That, and my family must have brainwashed all of you. Nevertheless, I’m optimistic about Twitter’s growing importance. In the same article, a Twitter spokesman reported that “it took us three years, two months and one day to reach one billion tweets. Now, we see more than one billion tweets every three days.”
If I haven’t been convincing enough, then ask yourself why you wouldn’t want to be involved with a website that offers instant news, hilarious content, and engaging commentary. It’s a space in which you can share your thoughts to just friends (in the case of a private profile), or to the whole world, if you’re feeling confident. Any which way, I encourage McGill students to join Twitter. And while 140 characters didn’t give me enough leeway to pour my heart out, know this: 140 characters are enough to have an impact.
Though those 140 characters might be used to discuss JLo’s washroom trip, I think we can get past that.
