I joined Twitter July 2009. 5 years later…I’m more active on my account than I’ve ever been. I began as a follower, became a curator and now also a content creator through my blog posts.
Twitter has granted me ease of access to information across a range of topics, allowed me to create real offline connections that I would not have otherwise been able to make, given me a voice and power of influence with the CEO’s, politicians and educators of this world, and created a new habit for me.
#onlinefirst
With only 140 characters, we are able to stay current with the news, learn something new, engage with our immediate and the global community and express ourselves. Twitter has removed the need for search and given us constant access to knowledge; search now happens after. And having this channel of real-time information has provided us with transparency about industries, corporations and governments. We are more informed and educated than we’ve ever been because of twitter, and this has inspired individuals to challenge long-established systems and advocate change to remove constraints to our freedom, such as we’ve seen recently with Turkey and during the Arab Spring, and also with Student Voice – twitter chats that enable students to be heard and influence decisions around education.
#transparency
Twitter has also allowed me to connect with individuals in a new way and so much of my network today has originated from twitter. There once was a time when online connections were considered ingenuine, such as when people distinguished between “Facebook friends” and real friends. But on Twitter, conversations initiate relationships; followers are less predetermined by existing relationships and driven by content, not by professional statuses or pictures that typically create exclusivity or immediate filtering.
#relationships
Twitter has touched upon every area of my life, from social to education to professional, and has changed how I explore and connect within these areas. I have yet to see another web and mobile service that is able to provide such speed and penetration of information and enable its users to create impact at a global level.
Follow Me on Twitter @tiffanydstone
Tiffany Stone 