Facebook < Twitter

Although both part of the same realm of social media, Facebook and Twitter accomplish very different jobs. While both can be used to develop an online persona to connect with an audience and broadcast your thoughts or feelings, I feel that Facebook accomplishes this in a more personal and connected way, while Twitter offers the platform to connect with an audience beyond people you know.

            Facebook provides a way to get in contact and stay in touch with people. However, it is uncommon to use Facebook to connect with people you don’t personally know or share some connection with. On Twitter, however, in addition to following friends or acquaintances it is common to follow news organizations, celebrities, popular “meme” accounts, journalists, politicians, etc. Doing so allows you to expand the information you receive from Twitter. The problem with Facebook is that it is too connected, too personal. Facebook was designed to cater to mutual relationships between people, while Twitter was designed to foster a relationship between one person and a wide audience. On Facebook, you expect responses from the people you communicate with. On Twitter, you broadcast yourself but don’t necessarily expect a response from your followers. You aren’t going to send a friend request to Barack Obama and expect to connect with him via Facebook, but on Twitter he has 27.2 million people following his account. Facebook was developed with the purpose of social use, i.e. keeping in touch with friends, keeping track of the people in your social circle, posting pictures of what you did last weekend and sharing your likes/dislikes/inner thoughts/status. It was not developed as a news outlet.

            Facebook does have many benefits. The implementation of a “network” such as the University of Notre Dame network allows users to easily make connections. Facebook’s algorithm does a great job connecting me with other users who I know or share things in common with. Additionally, it allows me to easily stay connected with friends and family who span the country. Facebook also provides the forum for keeping in touch with people because messages can be exchanged that are longer than 140 characters. Also, Facebook is much more useful for posting photographs because entire albums can be uploaded to the site. Bottom line: Facebook allows users to share more information than Twitter, which limits the size of posts.

            As a news website, however, I don’t think Facebook can be as beneficial as Twitter. America is a nation that wants their news efficiently and easily. Twitter provides the forum for sharing quick tidbits of information that tell people what they need to know and why it’s important. As David Carr pointed out in the New York Times “Page One” documentary, Twitter offers people the opportunity to get caught up on their news in the time it takes to wait in line for a cup of coffee. The value comes in its ease and accessibility. Facebook’s newsfeed simply doesn’t operate with the same concise style. Facebook is a very successful and useful medium for social media, but I feel Twitter is more useful for news media.