In these days a lot of people are talking about Twitter and the established media are making a quiet big issue out of it. Unfortunately, somehow it seems like most people still do not know how it works and how it should work, which reduces its importance for the public a lot.

Since Barack Obama used Twitter very efficiently for his election campaign, numerous politicians, companies and private persons form all over the world feel the need to get in touch with these kind of new media devices, for the sake of not getting lost in the knowledge gap the world wide web has brought to our society.

Obviously just using it does neither really bring much advantage the persons tweeting, nor to their followers. Sadly many private users of twitter utilise it just to publish bland information of their private life and even professional Tweeters are often just using it as a short form of a newsletter. This occurrence might lead many new Twitter users to the assumption that it is just another short-lived trend, that no one really needs.

Nonetheless, Twitter can be a useful tool for several needs. For example it can help to promote a brand or a person, it is probably one of the fastest ways to get world wide news and it combines all the convenience of social networking, rss feeds and blogging.
More details about the Use of Twitter

Finally it can be said that twitter is a quiet useful tool for media related people and companies, but for the broad public it is more of a hype that will be forgotten quiet soon again.

It all started when wireless internet and UMTS internet became increasingly popular due to sinking technology prices and growing availability of free WIFI networks in public places like coffee stores, gas stations, pubs, airports, train stations and many more. For these reasons it is possible to go online more or less everywhere in any halfway developed country in the world.

With the emergence of the so called ‘smart phones’, e.g. Apples Iphone, this phenomenon got even stronger as they provided the ability to go online only without carrying a computer around. Consequently one could say that it is just another tool that we carry around with us in our multi-tasking mobile phones, but it is much more than that. Nowadays people are heading for the ultimate goal of always being connected to the world wide web in some way.

This issue brings a lot of convenience to our everyday lifes, as it is possible to get almost any information from the internet. It can help in so many situations, just by providing information that is needed, and it gives one the possibility to provide content for others while being on the run. On the other hand it should be mentioned that it also makes us really dependent on our technology, since we are getting more and more used to relay on the internet as a never ending source of data and knowledge.

Furthermore it provides some possible dangers of backtracking and other misuse that should always be taken into account.

According to CBC News the Canadian insurance company ‘Manulife’ refuses to go on paying monthly sick-leave benefits to the 29 years old Nathalie Blanchard because of evidence pictures, the company found on her private Facebook account.

Blanchard received her sick-leave benefits for being unable to work because she was diagnosed with major depressions. Now Manulife refuses to pay her sick-leave benefits, because they found several pictures of her having a good time on her birthday and enjoying a holiday trip, which they take as an evidence for her well being.

All this happened although she informed ‘Manulife’ about her trip and she acted in advice of her doctor, who told her, that she should try to have fun going out, as means of forgetting her problems for a while.
Nevertheless, it is even more shocking that the insurance company could get access to her private Facebook account, although it is locked and only people who she approved should have had access to her posts and photos.

Regrettably this is just one of many examples that should make each of us think of the possible dangers that might appear from new media like web 2.0.

I thought the Topics of this blog would match quiet good with the essay, that I wrote for my Social Cultural Studies course, thats why I posted it too.

Essay