This week Twitter celebrated its 10th birthday.
It’s a massive achievement for any platform that has come after Facebook. After all, I think it’s safe to say Myspace can attribute its death to Zuckerberg’s genius experiment.
Back to Twitter.
Founded by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass, the platform has earned its place in the social media hall of fame.
It has changed communication. Unlike Facebook or Instagram, Twitter is actually “all things to all men”.
Let me explain: not many people think of Facebook and relate it to any form of “business platform”. When one mentions Instagram, people automatically associate it with pretty pictures and great filters. This is not entirely bad.
But Twitter, I believe, has not only survived 10 years, but has transcended both spaces – social and business.
People are more likely to use Twitter for all sorts of things, whereas other platforms are kept separate.
Entertainment, news reports, parody accounts, sport platforms, and movie stars – among other topics – enable users to engage on a wider range of issues in one “timeline”.
However, on Facebook, I can only have access to something or some features if we are “friends”.
I am what some might describe as an “early adopter”. This means when something like Twitter comes out, I have to try it. I joined Twitter in 2009 (yes, three years after its launch but still largely unpopular at the time). Back then, I wasn’t really sure what it was for, so I just kept people up to speed about my coffee adventures, my studies or whatever I thought was funny.
However, looking back at some of my earliest tweets, one thing is clear: my Twitter voice has changed and I have become comfortable in that space. And I believe this is what Twitter has done for a big group of 320 million users on the platform: it has given people their “voice”.
With only 140 characters at your disposal, you have to be careful with your words – but this helps. It forces you to get to the point in a way that is able to convey whatever you’re trying express.
It has been referred to as a “micro-blogging site”. This means there are 320 million would-be micro bloggers out there.
The flow of information and news tends to first “break” on Twitter before “trending” and going viral.
For me, and I know many others out there, it is the go-to place for any piece of information (after Google), without having to dig through a ridiculous amount of other details.
I strongly believe Twitter is yet to reach its full potential and give us the best service yet.
My only suggestion: do not compromise the rapid pace and flow of the service : 140 characters is all I need. And constantly changing timelines keep me at pace with the rest of the world.
Happy birthday, Twitter!
Oh, and I took a picture of the tweet that changed everything (the first tweet ever, from one of the founding members, Jack):
