Twitter is most definitely the media’s flavour of the month right now. Newspapers, TV programmes
and blogs are awash with the ‘latest craze to grip the nation’. While the hyperbole that always characterises these debates will undoubtedly pass as quickly as it arose, it does raise some interesting questions about the compelling nature of Twitter.
Beyond, the obvious fact that humans have always been social beings and that Twitter is yet another example of an advance in digital technology that makes it easier for us to satisfy our underlying human need to feel connected with each other, there are some interesting parallels to be drawn from the traditional media world to help explain why the average Twitter user is so interested in the minutia of the lives of some many people beyond their immediate social circle.
First and most obviously the fact that Stephen Fry has over 250,000 followers on Twitter, and counting, can easily be explained by the obsession with celebrity which fuels the modern media and specifically by looking at the success of magazines like Hello which provide their readers with an insight into the daily lives of their ‘heroes’. In that regard Twitter can be seen as just Hello magazine in real time.
But that doesn’t explain why so many of us are as equally interested in the vicissitudes of the lives of those who we know but wouldn’t necessarily buy more than one beer for on a big night out. In my view this is more akin to the fascination in the details of everyday live that has sustained soap operas like EastEnders and Coronation Street for so long. Yes these soap operas have the occasional 'big' story' lines but for the most part they are focused on the detail of the ordinary lives of everyday folk. Just like Twitter.
It’s not rocket science but it is life Jim, only just as we know it.
Beyond, the obvious fact that humans have always been social beings and that Twitter is yet another example of an advance in digital technology that makes it easier for us to satisfy our underlying human need to feel connected with each other, there are some interesting parallels to be drawn from the traditional media world to help explain why the average Twitter user is so interested in the minutia of the lives of some many people beyond their immediate social circle.
First and most obviously the fact that Stephen Fry has over 250,000 followers on Twitter, and counting, can easily be explained by the obsession with celebrity which fuels the modern media and specifically by looking at the success of magazines like Hello which provide their readers with an insight into the daily lives of their ‘heroes’. In that regard Twitter can be seen as just Hello magazine in real time.
But that doesn’t explain why so many of us are as equally interested in the vicissitudes of the lives of those who we know but wouldn’t necessarily buy more than one beer for on a big night out. In my view this is more akin to the fascination in the details of everyday live that has sustained soap operas like EastEnders and Coronation Street for so long. Yes these soap operas have the occasional 'big' story' lines but for the most part they are focused on the detail of the ordinary lives of everyday folk. Just like Twitter.
It’s not rocket science but it is life Jim, only just as we know it.
