Twitter is just one of our many social network sites. My personal favorite if we're being honest. You can use it to laugh, or rant, or subtweet. Just about anything you want. But there is a language special to Twitter and those who use it. I believe in the impact that the Twitter subculture has. Attention can be brought to serious situations going on in the world and also build relationships among users through collectively enjoyed entertainment.
1. The Subtweet
I don't care who you are or what gender you may be, we all get angry. Strangers make us mad. Friends make us mad. Parents make us mad. Anyone breathing has potential to set us off. And we cannot always retaliate to their face. Solution? The subtweet. This is the backhanded way of getting how you feel about someone out. You think your friend was talking bad about you to another friend so you tweet out "I just think it's funny you can't say it to my face." This gives the tweeter plausible deniability when the "friend" shoots off the text "Was that tweet about me?" Typically, even though subtweets aren't direct, they do start drama. WHOEVER IT WAS ABOUT MOST LIKELY KNOWS IT WAS ABOUT THEM.
2. The Rant
Bad days come and go. For some of us, it can be bad weeks or even bad months. So maybe late one night we've been eating a pint of ice cream and watching depressing movies like the Boy in the Striped Pajamas. The weight of our situations hit us and we go to Twitter to find some consolation. Rants can go as long as six tweets in the span of thirty minutes. They are typically depressing and have many capital letters. You know how tragic a rant is by the amount of time it takes you to go back and delete the cringe-worthy words.
3. The Retweet
Retweeting what someone has said is a form of flattery. You think it was funny, or relatable or something you are also passionate about. These tweets deserve more than just a like. You want your followers to enjoy them as well and you feel that they are worthy to be on your page. My personal page is mostly retweets of cats falling off tables and little babies falling over when they sneeze. Others choose to make their page political. Retweets say as much about a person as their own custom tweets.
4. Your Own Tweet
Among the Twitter subculture, there are a handful of reasons people send out their own tweets. Some like for their followers to see every single meal they eat. I do not follow those accounts. Other accounts may be for a political affiliation. I don't really follow those either. A majority of tweets and accounts are meant to bring attention to important situations and also provide entertainment for their followers. These make up the majority of the accounts I follow. I personally enjoy funny videos, but also like to be involved in change. And Twitter allows users to use their tweets to cause change. Through go fund me pages or allowing people to reach out for help from followers and friends.
5. The Like
This aspect of Twitter is by far one of my favorites and up for a variety of interpretations. It can be a way to flirt and get someone's attention. A lonely heart tweets out "Really wanna go see a movie tonight." An adoring follower may like it and by the end of the night they both smell like popcorn and are holding hands. So is the beauty of the like. The like can also be for when you really like or relate to a tweet but someone from your church follows you and you're trying to keep your dark humor hidden. Like I said... a variety of different uses.
All in all, Twitter is amazing. This is basically a long tutorial/interpretation guide/love letter to my favorite social media.
Love you, Twitter.
