J.L.A.1021-2116(2010)19PP.

317-340 19 99 12

317

Twitter Plurk
*

Twitter Plurk Twitter Plurk Twitter Plurk Twitter Plurk

318

The Communication Effects of Twitter and Plurk

Jesse Chain Chou ABSTRACT
This research aims to specifically elaborate the communication effects of two most popular social networking sites- Twitter and Plurk. It further assesses the positive and negative effects withheld in the user s personal life. The researcher compared Twitter and Plurk in terms of its efficiency, technological aspect, communication effects and the trend that these social networking sites uphold. In addition, the research evaluated the advantages and disadvantages of each other and provided a cross examination for each of the social networking site chosen. Keywords: Twitter, Plurk

Twitter Plurk

319

Introduction
In the world today, technology continues to evolve in so many ways that would help people to build bridges and create opportunity for themselves. Given this change, arises a need for development in ways to communicate and be in touch with the real world. As a result, social networking arose. Social networking refers to the act of building networks of people on specific websites. Social networking takes place among people who share something a political leaning, an interest in a particular movie or musician, or an activity like yoga or school plays. A social networking site is just a means for building these social networks. These sites are made up of some web representation for each network member (a profile) a list of their links or interests, and some kind of hook or gimmick to set that particular site apart from the crowd. Social networking sites are web-based, and offer their users the ability to link and build networks freely. Members interact with email or private messaging using that site s servers. As social networking becomes more and more popular, it necessitates the availability of different social networking sites that are to be chosen from. Among hundreds of different classifications of social networking sites Twitter and Plurk have been two very popular sites.

Twitter
Twitter is a website, owned and operated by Twitter Inc., which offers a social networking and microblogging service, enabling its users to send and read other users' messages called tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the user's profile page. Tweets are publicly visible by default; however, senders can restrict message delivery to their friends list. Users may subscribe to other author tweets - this is known as following and

320

subscribers are known as followers. As of late 2009, users can follow lists of authors instead of just following individual authors. All users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, compatible with external applications (such as, for smartphones) and Short Message Service (SMS) available in certain countries.

The Development of Twitter

Twitter s origins lie in a daylong brainstorming session that was held by board members of the podcasting company Odeo. During the meeting, Jack Dorsey introduced the idea of an individual using an SMS service to communicate with a small group, a concept partially inspired by the SMS group messaging service TXTMob. The original project code name for the service was twttr, inspired by Flickr and the five character length of American SMS short codes. The developers initially considered "10958" as a short code, but later changed it to "40404" for "ease of use and memorability." Work on the project started on March 21, 2006, when Dorsey published the first Twitter message at 9:50 PM Pacific Standard Time (PST): "just setting up my twttr.. The first Twitter prototype was used as an internal service for Odeo employees and the full version was introduced publicly on July 15, 2006. In October 2006, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Dorsey, and other members of Odeo formed Obvious Corporation and acquired Odeo and all of its assetsincluding Odeo.com and Twitter.comfrom the investors and shareholders. Twitter spun off into its own company in April 2007. The tipping point for Twitter's popularity was the 2007 South by Southwest (SXSW) festival. During the event Twitter usage increased from 20,000 tweets per day to 60,000. On September 14, 2010, Twitter launched a redesigned site including a new logo. Twitter had 400,000 tweets posted per quarter in 2007 forming an increasing number of tweets per

Twitter Plurk

321

year which eventually grew to about 65 million tweets a day, measuring about 750 tweets sent each second, according to Twitter, by June of 2010. The website is based in San Bruno, California near San Francisco (where the website was first based). Twitter also has servers and offices in San Antonio, Texas and Boston, Massachusetts.Since its creation in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Twitter has gained notability and popularity worldwide and currently has more than 100 million users worldwide. It is sometimes described as the "SMS of the Internet." (http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Twitter)

Technological Aspect
As a social network twitter revolves around the issue of communicating through a series of simplified mechanics and related chat, messages are the key factors to be organized in a social networking site. Hash tags are words or phrases with a # sign, are used so that users can post together by topic or type. Similarly, a letter d followed by a username is used to send messages privately. Also, users can use the @ sign followed by a username to reply or mention on other users. Late 2009, Twitter list feature was added so that users can reply or mention to a bulk of authors. Twitter as a social networking site provides users to share their current activity by answering the question What are users doing?. This form of social inter-action is called microblogging. Microblogging tools enable users to post short messages that are distributed within their community. Users can post messages from their mobile devices, a Web page, from Instant Messengers and desktop clients. The same channels are used for receiving messages. Through five gateway numbers: codes for Canada, the United States of America, New Zealand, and India for international use that the users can communicate through SMS. Vodafone, O2 and Orange are the ones supported by a short code in the United Kingdom, Bharti Airtel and smsTweet for India and GladlyCast for mobile phone users in the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia.

322

Since twitter solely focuses on short-messaging, an initial 140- character limit are used in Twitter resulting to an introduction to shorthand notations and slang that are commonly used in SMS messages. URL shortening also increased in usage such as bitly googl, and trim, and content hosting services, such as Twitpic, memozu.com and NotePub to contain multimedia content and text longer than 140 characters. Twitter uses bit.ly for automatic shortening of all URLs posted on its website. (http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/) Based on a market research by the Pear Analytics in San Antonio, Tweets are separated into 6 categories. Pointless babble which holds about 41% of all the 2000 sample tweets analyzed during August 2009. The second category was conversational which consisted of 38%, next was Pass-along value that held only 9%, Self-promotion tweets only consisted of 6%, while News and Spam where both tied up with 4%. On an Article from The Daily Telegram, sited that on June 12, 2009, in what was called a probable "Twitpocalypse", the unique numerical identifier related with each tweet exceeded the limit 2,147,483,647 total messages. Twitter itself was not affected; however, some third-party clients could no longer access recent tweets therefore presuming a technical problem in the system. Patches then were quickly released. On September 22, the identifier exceeded the rim for 4,294,967,296 total messages again flouting some third-party clients. But as the first blow had come, twitter was able to stabilize its forces.

Function
Whether it s breaking news, a local traffic jam, a deal a user s favorite shop or a funny pick-me-up from a friend, Twitter keeps users informed with what matters most to users today and helps users discover what might matter to users most tomorrow. The timely bits of information that spread through Twitter can

Twitter Plurk

323

help users make better choices and decisions and, should users so desire, creates a platform for users to influence what s being talked about around the world. Search results spread across Twitter and in other ways across the Web so users can discover what s happening on and off of Twitter.com, wherever users prefer. Twitter is built to share short updates about What s Happening to users. Other people use this for business and fan pages. Nowadays celebrities uses Twitter to promote their tours and update their fans on what s going on with them. Other government agencies use Twitter on crime control since Twitter is prevalent they think that social networking sites such as Twitter can help them to ease their jobs. Twitter is a communication platform that helps businesses stay connected to their customers. As a business, users can use it to quickly share information with people interested in the user s company, gather real-time market intelligence and feedback, and build relationships with customers, partners and other people who care about user s company. Individual user can use Twitter to tell a company (or anyone else) that users have had a great or disappointing experience with their business, offer product ideas, and learn about great offers. (Twitter, 2010. Twitter 101. Retrieved September 22, 2010, from http://business.twitter.com/twitter101) Twitter can give a voice to even the weakest signals because of its simplicity. Users can access Twitter on powerful broadband connections via a video game console or through faint connections in rural areas via SMS on a simple mobile phone. Users can also access Twitter through more than 50,000 third-party Internet and mobile applications. How users use Twitter is completely up to users- following hundreds of people, following a dozen, posting every hour, or searching for user s favorite topics and creating lists. Users are in control on Twitter. The 140 character limit originated so tweets could be sent as mobile text messages which have a limit of 160 characters. Minus 20 characters for author attribution, that gives users just enough room. Twitter is the evolution of mobile messaging, not replacing SMS, IM, or email but introducing a new public dimension to messaging. Twitter is working closely

324

with all of the major mobile phone manufacturers and platform providers to integrate Twitter throughout their devices. These partners believe that it makes their product more appealing if they include a pre-loaded Twitter application and give users the ability to tweet from the camera, maps, browser, media player and other contexts of the device. In order to fulfill the goals as an information network, Twitter works closely with developers and partners to create meaningful and varied experiences so that Twitter content could be created and consumed regardless of the mode or medium. From SMS to web apps to rich native applications on gaming consoles users should be able to experience twitter in any form that works for them. Fortunately, thousands of developers have taken advantage of Twitter s open API to make more than 50,000 applications that run on all types of devices and Web services. (Twitter, 2010, Twitter 101. Retrieved September 22, 2010, from http://twitter.com/about)

Advantages
There are a lot of advantages Twitter has in store for its users. It makes everybody s life a lot more convenient and faster. It opens opportunities for a variety of people, be they a student, parent, employee, professor, businessman, politician, or celebrities, to commune with other people, mix cultures and widen one s social horizon. It gives a voice to a person, a sense of belongingness and freedom to express one s opinions and ideologies. Also, it helps the users to disseminate information in a wide range without the hassle and extra costs a normal conversation would have. An Example of Twitter s advantage is to a businessman that uses Twitter to offer unique chance to show their customers that theyre actually improving the quality of their products. In movies, when filmmaker Andrew Lampard began promoting his documentary Two Summers in Kosovo last fall, he didnt pay

Twitter Plurk

325

much attention to social media. Lampard used his personal Twitter and Facebook accounts to keep his friends informed, but he didnt use any social media tools to promote the movie - something he regrets today. We could have used social media to connect with more audiences, said Lampard, whose film focuses on the aftermath of the Kosovo conflict. After the war, Serb and Albanian diasporas popped up all over the West in Europe, North America, even Australia. Beyond raising awareness among festival programmers, I like to think we could have set up our own independent screenings within the Balkans and these diasporas. While Lampard s film generated some attention in Kosovo, it went largely unnoticed outside of Europe. Could social media have made a difference? Lampard isnt certain, but for his future films, he plans to do what many filmmakers are already doing - using social media to aggressively promote their work. (Hotz et al., 2010). Without printed words and the knowledge conveyed by them to the masses who became literate there would have been no Bill of Rights in America to protect the freedom and dignity of individuals As soon as complex thoughts could be easily conveyed from one individual to the mass of others and as soon as others could easily receive them and potentially agree with them every individual suddenly had the potential for leveraging mass political power. Therefore this leads to a need for a communication tool to spread a vital information therein. It urns out that translating complex thoughts into 140 characters or less is just as powerful, and the combination of Twitter and the simple transfer of information allowed by the internet, is exponentially so. The beginning of this transformation back to two-way communication started of course, with the internet, and gained real traction with bloggers. Most media pundits admit that the 2006 election was the first in which the bloggers, real people with no particular fame or influence up to that point, suddenly DID have influence. The blogosphere became the public response to the corporate news and the campaign spin.

326

Prevalence
According to Bernhard Warner Twitter has gone to over 15 million users as of March 11, 2010. Since October one in eight new accounts created was deemed to be malicious, suspicious or otherwise misused and consequently suspended. There are all kinds of explanations for the relatively high inactive user figures on Twitter. It is true Twitter has gone through a rapid growth, then decline. It s entirely reasonable Twitter is populated by a lot of new users still unsure how and what to Tweet. In any event, Twitter itself should better define its user base. The soon-to-launch Twitter advertising platform hinges on it. Like other social media, micro-blogs have been taken up with great enthusiasm by a usersnger crowd. Numerically speaking, Pew found that 19% of online adults ages 18 through 24 have used the services, as have 20% of those 25 through 34. But the average Twitter user is older than the average member of the most prominent social networks. The median age for a Twitter user is 31, compared to 27 for MySpace and 26 for Facebook. The PIP memo found that as of December 2008 some 11% of online American adults had used a micro-blog service like Twitter. That compares to 9% of online U.S. users who were asked in November 2008 if they used Twitter or similar platforms. A comparable survey question from PIP in May 2008 got a 6% yes response. Because of their age and since the U.S. users are more diverse in race and ethnicity than the online U.S. population as a whole, Twitter users are also a more varied racial and ethnic mix than the country overall. For the same reasons of age, they are also more likely to have little more than lint in their pockets. As far as digs go, thirty-five percent of Twitter users live in urban areas compared to 29% of all Internet users. Only 9% of those using Twitter live in rural areas, as opposed to 17% of the general U.S. online population. Nakano, C., (2009). The Twitter Population is Diverse and Growing. Retrieved September 22, 2010, from http://www.cmswire.com/cms/micro-cms/the-twitter-population-is-diverse-and-g rowing-003973.php

Twitter Plurk

327

The Communication effect of Twitter

Currently, every popular medium poses different perspective on its users. Twitter, as one of the most widely employed tools for communication, has also had its social, behavior, and psychological impacts on its users and further its effects are categorized as positive and negative. The positive effects that Twitter results is that it seems to be a perfect tool to support learning English, especially in blended classrooms. In addition to that, Twitter also serves as an online learning community that can help to integrate students in the area who could not attend classrooms and discover new ideas and study techniques. Using Twitter, students have the opportunity to communicate and interact more effectively with their friends and classmates, and people across cultures; a skill which becomes more and more indispensable in the interconnected world of today. In other social aspects, Twitter opens opportunities to a variety of people, and It gives a voice to a person, a sense of belongingness and freedom to express one s opinions and ideologies. It may also provoke certain new clicks and allow individuals who may suffer from inferiority complex or are social outcasts to gain confidence as they gain friends. The democracy s advocates are beginning to use their own sophisticated techniques: the Internet, online organizing, blogs, and wikis to further enhance the information available for growing communities. Also, it helps the users to disseminate information in a wider range without the hassle and extra costs a normal conversation would have. Of course, there is also a downside in the effects of twitter to a social community and some of them are the following: It gives opportunities for sexual abusers and exploiters to take advantage of these prevailing technological innovations and thus, commit certain violations in morals and ethics. Twitter may discourage its users in establishing physical personal relationships by excluding their selves in the reality of substantial communication and interaction. In addition, it can also cause a conflict between the user s virtual self and the

328

user s social self as many still excessively rely on Twitter for their activities. Lastly, Twitter may become a distraction to the responsibilities an individual has to its social community.

Plurk
Plurk is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates (otherwise known as Plurks) through short messages or links, which can be up to 140 text characters in length, less than 140 characters, that users can broadcast to the whole world, their buddies or just users over the web, through instant messaging, and through text messaging on the user s mobile phone. Updates are then shown on the user's home page using a timeline which lists all the updates received in chronological order, and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. Users can respond to other users' updates from their timeline through the Plurk.com website, by instant messaging, or by text messaging. (http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Plurk) Another definition of Plurk is a really snazzy site that allows users to showcase the events that make up user s life, and follow the events of the people that matter to users, in deliciously digestible short messages called Plurks. (Plurk. (2010). Plurk FAQ. Retrieved September 22, 2010, from http://www.plurk.com/ faq)

The Development of Plurk

Plurk was developed by and envisioned as a communication medium meant to form a balance between blogs and social networks, and between e-mail messaging and instant messaging. After months of development, Plurk was launched on May 2008.The etymology of the name was explained by the

Twitter Plurk

329

developers as such, an abbreviation of people and lurk, portmanteau of 'play' and 'work', acronym of peace, love, unity, respect, and karma, and a verb neologism, similar to how Google was eventually used as a verb. Plurk is very popular in Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia and the United States. According to Alexa, as of February 11, 2010, 34.4% of Plurk's traffic comes from Taiwan, and about 30% of Plurk's traffic comes from Southeast Asia. Plurk is also ranked 24th in Taiwan and 1,062nd worldwide. (Plurk. 2010. In Wikipedia. Retrieved September 22, 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plurk)

Technological Aspect
Plurk's interface shows updates in horizontal form through a scrollable timeline written in JavaScript and updated through AJAX. Users can post new messages with optional 'qualifiers', which are one-word verbs used to represent a thought (e.g. "feels", "thinks", "loves", etc.). There are also advanced features such as sending updates only to a subset of user s friends, posting updates on events earlier in the day, and sharing images, videos, and other media. Plurks can also be "liked", as in other social sites. Plurk also supports group conversations between friends and allows usage of emoticons together with the usual text micro-blogging. The Plurk.com developers released public access to API on December 4, 2009 due to messages being sent between users in near-realtime, many users use Plurk as an alternative to chat. Plurk is the simplest way to get updated from friends or people whose life s flow is a matter for users it is a simplest way because it contains the easiest and the digestible messages that are called Plurks. The messages will show the development of someone users care about in a short sentence that makes it easier to follow. Yet, it is also easier for users to change the user s own Plurk for make people aware of what users are doing. Plurk (2010).

330

Function
To sign up in Plurk is very easy and will only take ten seconds. As usual, users just need to submit their email address and create a password for an account in plurk. After so, users will need to create a user s id for a user s new Plurk account. Then, as easy as writing, the users can post user s Plurks. The User s posts can be about any thing. It can be about user s thought, feeling, and comments. By inviting the user s friends to join the Plurk, users can share more with them about what happens in the user s days and what are users feeling. With the availability of only less than 140 characters, users can post anything about users, their days, thought and life over all. Through instant messaging and text messaging, users can make it easier by using their mobile phone for accessing Plurk and making updates. In Plurk, users can easily get fans and followers. All users need to do is just send them an invitation via email that tells them that users are inviting them to join users in Plurk. Then, friends will recognize that it is users who invite them as let see what will they respond to it. To get friends is that easy. Friends in Plurk are more or less mutual. It is because both users and their friends are following each other, which makes it possible for users both to get the message and updates as often as users or friends update it. It is simply by pressing the button add to friend as that a user s friend will get a notification whether to accept the user s request or not. And, the follower is more like fans. It is not hard to find followers. Usually someone in Plurk always gets a follower. (Dihl, J. 2009, Dec 24). A user s timeline is a user s home screen where users will spend all of their time on Plurk. It allows users to easily view and scroll from left to right using the user s mouse or keyboard as Plurks are created by users and user s friends throughout the day. It gives users a clear view into what everybody is up to recently and lets users stay caught up on what their friends are doing. Qualifiers are yummy color coded words which are commonly used by our members to

Twitter Plurk

331

start Plurks. They make it easy for users to identify different types of Plurks visually. So users can easily tell what someone <feels>, or<thinks>, or <loves> or <was> doing. Freestyle Plurking is a way of Plurking without qualifiers. No limit is set to hinder the user s creativity so users can Plurk as users please if users choose not to use the color coded qualifiers. These are great for our older or more expressive users. How to turn a text into a link? The secret formula is http://usersrlink (text). For example, try to copy and paste the following text to the user s Plurk box:http://yahoo.com. A fan is someone who follows a user s Plurk, a friend is also someone who follows a user s Plurk, and at the same time a user also follows his/her Plurk. Users can make a Plurk private so that it's only viewable to a certain friends or cliques. Go to 'Private Plurk, Language & Option' under the Plurk box to do that. When users Plurk a web address that ends with .gif, .jpg or .png (for example: http://photobucket. com/image/cat/erinstevens34/cat.jpg), Plurk automatically generates a thumbnail image for users. The same happens when users Plurk with Userstube's embed url, such as: http://userstube.com/watch?v= oHg5SJYRHA0. A clique is just that. It's a way for users to define a smaller audience among the user s friends who share something in common. Maybe 5 of a user s friends play on the same soccer team, or maybe 3 of a user s friends work at the same company or maybe 7 of a user s buddies go for beers and wings every Monday night. Cliques help users manage a user s audience so that users can send Plurks to only the friends who need to be notified. Plurk (2010).

Advantages
In Plurk, the user s post can be liked by the user s friends and can also be commented upon. Even in 140 characters, users can share videos and links. An article entitled Why Plurk? "Funny thing that. I harkened to a link dropped by Lee Odden earlier today on Plurk (of course), in which we outlined reasons

332

to use Twitter. I have to go with the top three of sharing links/items of interest, networking for new contacts (I made quite a few the last week), and reinforcing current networks. "Beyond that, it is early days, and one other distinct aspect is the increase in many of my social profiles' reaches. There has been a steady increase in Stumble, Twitter, FriendFeed and RSS subscribers, and some minor movement on LinkedIn and MyBlogLog. There is certainly something here, but will it last?" "I use Plurk because I am an incredibly social creature who loves trying new things. I also absolutely love meeting new people for work and play." "Microblogging, in any format, is addictive. And Plurk makes it even more addictive. By grouping responses and a format similar to a forum, showing counts of recent Plurks and responses on a somewhat real-time basis, and using Plurk Buddy to instant message users when somebody users follow had something to say, it becomes pretty hard to ignore Plurkers. Plus, it is more conversational. For example, I posted an SEO [search-engine optimization] question on both Twitter and Plurk a few weeks back, and despite having half the friend list on Plurk, I got a handful of knowledgeable responses from Plurkers. I got zero responses on Twitter. Mostly the same people [but a] different, more conversational platform "Needless to say, hours upon hours later, I love the way users can use emoticons in user s updates, and the fact that each update gets its own thread is so much fun. Someone called it Twitter on steroids, and I totally agree with the colored verb choices and ability to put friends in clicks, it is by far the most fun microblogging I have ever had. Plurk has opened all kinds of interesting doors for me as a blogger and networker. I even ran into an old friend from high school that I have not heard from in 20-plus years if users can believe that! Some of my conversations have even led to more in-depth conversations elsewhere, resulting in new friendships and Internet marketing support." "I jumped into Plurk because a few factors lined up right for it to happen. Twitter was having troubles staying up, lots of people I knew and recognized in the search -marketing communities were signing up, and the Plurk user interface was

Twitter Plurk

333

radically different than what we have seen, filled with bells and whistles. Why not give it a shot and at least get my name reserved in it?" Mintz, T., (2008).

The Communication Effect of Plurk

Plurk is known to be a runner-up in micro-blogging sites; however, despite being called a runner-up it still imposes certain positive and negative communication effects in individuals who use this as a tool for social networking. Plurk opens Potential marketing techniques that companies can use when integrating microblogging into their marketing mix like Ben Q. The Plurk social space operates 24 hours a day, non-stop. Messages are recorded and easily read later, so communicating is more efficient and well-organized. If user s Plurk friends are all residents (typically so), the social space is always in SL Context making discussions of in-world things much easier. However, it also carries certain disadvantages. For example, such as it may consume all the time a person has, discouraging physical social involvement and interaction, and may also confine one s social space and limit their knowledge about global and national issues.

Comparison and contrast between Twitter and Plurk

Two of the most known micro-blogging sites are Twitter and Plurk and these two have been widely compared in terms of their functionality. Twitter and Plurk both have their user-friendly designs for users to post short-messages. One of the first and currently most popular micro-blogging services is the venerable Twitter. Many Second Life residents still use Twitter, but it suffers from two key problems: first, it has been frequently broken or degraded, and secondly it s nearly impossible to have any kind of ongoing conversation as all messages are

334

treated as a giant pool, whereas, Plurk created a better microblogging service. By developing and following a timeline of ideas wherein the Plurks show up in a chronological order (left: newest & right: oldest). This setting of Plurk greatly differs from that of Twitter, but that is how they are able to thread the conversations. As a result, per-user messaging seems significantly higher between Plurkers than between Twitterers. Those who are accustomed to Twitter dont get the timeline interface, but once they do, they usually like it. Other Twitter stalwarts dont want to migrate at this time because they have gathered a huge following on Twitter and would have to start over. (Lab, L., 2008). On the profile customization feature, Plurk allows users to customize profiles by using CSS and has themes that the users may choose from. On the other hand, Twitter provides a setting wherein users may choose what color the user s profile will be. Both the Twitter and Plurk are able to provide avatars and pictures out of their user s own liking. Privacy options are also offered in both of these social networking sites. Twitter lets users to choose the people users follow that will see the user s tweets, only. And on the other hand Plurk has a setup whereas users can choose who can view their Plurks and who can search for them on Plurk. Unlike Twitter where users can just post links to media, on Plurk, whenever users link to a picture, song, or video, the media is immediately visible/playable from within the message and users can double click it to get to the original source. This set-up is formally known as inline attachments that are readily available on Plurk only. The only downside on Plurk despite the more efficient set-ups is that it is less popular than Twitter, since it is normally considered as a runner-up in micro-blogging. Both Twitter and Plurk made it easier to add friends just by a click away; however, Plurk provides a pool of friends wherein users can add or ignore requests and messages at a time. Apparently, Plurk is best at its features for community-building, whereas Twitter succeeds more with its interface that bolsters information-sharing. Plurk is a good site for nonsensical ramblings primarily because it s harder to keep

Twitter Plurk

335

tabs on people and users admittedly flock to Plurk because there s less thinking involved. What Plurk has done is keep the 140/160 character limit that's the backbone of micro-messaging competitors such as Twitter and Pownce, but has created a completely unique interface and branding. If users are a fan of micro-messaging/blogging, users should welcome this because Plurk is pushing the boundaries of the space. Now the next competitor in this space is more likely to keep the 140-ish character format, but offer an even different experience aimed at a different market. (Mack. 2008. Twitter versus Plurk. Retrieved September 22, 2010, from http://moblogsmoproblems.blogspot.com/ 2008/06 /twitter-vs-plurk-who-wins.html) Though there are a lot of similarities between Twitter and Plurk, there still are some subtle differences. Most notably is in the more social nature of Plurk because it creates a timeline where users can post their thoughts, and it gives regular users an opportunity to connect to a larger audience, even if it s just for an instant. This helps users find and meet interesting people who users wouldnt have known otherwise. With Twitter, users need to build up a hefty friend list before users start seeing the same level of interaction.

Conclusion
The nature of communication has undergone a substantial change in the past 20 years and the change is not over. Email has had a profound effect on the way people keep in touch. Communications are shorter and more frequent than when letters were the norm; response time has greatly diminished; we are even surprised if someone we wish to contact does not have an email address. Although there are still a few people who print out their emails in order to read and respond to them, most of us are accustomed to the daily duty of reading and answering emails that have arrived since we turned off the computer the night before, and to keep up with them as they trickle (or flood) in during the day.

336

Even as we have gotten used to email, though, the nature of communication continues to change. Instant messaging has created another method of interaction, one where the length of messages is shorter and the style of the interaction is more conversational, but where it is acceptable and common to pay partial attention. Broadcast technologies like Twitter transform these short bursts of communication from one-on-one conversations to little news (or trivia) programs: we can tune in when we want an update or have something to say, and channel surf to other activities in between updates. New environments like virtual worlds present additional opportunities and challenges for communication. In such settings, there is a visual component to the online interaction that is lacking in email or instant messaging: we can see a body that goes with the voice or text conversation. Affordances like this can help foster a feeling of presence and give us clues about when the other person is listening, when he or she wishes to speak, and when his or her attention is directed elsewhere. This is not to say that these environments offer the same contextual cues as face-to-face communication they do not; but there is an added dimension to interactions in these spaces that does not occur in other online contexts. Online communication tools also have the potential to increase our awareness of the movements of our professional or social contacts. Twitter, for instance, offers an at-a-glance update of things people we know happen to be doing: who is outside cleaning their lawns, who is writing a new blog post, and who is about to have lunch with a friend. Clive Thompson (2007) calls this phenomenon social proprioception, named after the physical quality of proprioception that tells a creature where its extremities are by the reception of stimuli produced within the organism. Social proprioception tells us where the nodes of our community are and provides a sense of connectedness to and awareness of others without direct communication. Technologies like Twitter enable us to have this sense even when the members of our community are not within sight. (The Reason they Log On: The evolution of communication, 2007, The New Media Consortium; released under a Creative Commons Attribution,

Twitter Plurk

337

from http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/) It is a fast moving world. Micro-blogging sites are not different from social networks or the technological world. People just upgrade (or move) to something better (or hyped). Given this situation, man has to cope with the rapid growth of technology and science, but on the same time still maintaining their social lifestyle. This gave birth to social-networking, the act of building networks of people on specific websites. Social networking takes place among people who share something, forming a community, a relationship with others sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals through regular interaction. The context in which an interaction occurs has a profound effect on communication. In face-to-face encounters, factors ranging from psychological to environmental to cultural all have an effect on how the message is transmitted and how it is understood. Online communication is no less subject to context, and may bring with it additional contextual issues that will have an effect on the intended message. The type of technology being used to facilitate the interaction, for example, has a bearing on the environmental context of the conversation. A conversation taking place through instant messaging in between meetings will have a different flavor than if the same topic were discussed in a virtual world, on the phone, or in an online meeting room. The challenge of any communication, that of being understood, exists online as much as maybe more so than offline. Posts on threaded discussion forums and instant message communications are notoriously hard to decode correctly because of the lack of nuance. As more people participate in these kinds of communications, signals that were developed to add context to text-based messages, like smileys ( ) and tags (like <rant> </rant>), are slipping into the mainstream. The issue of context is far from solved, though, and continues to surface with each new mode of communication that emerges. This research shows that the more people are into social networking sites given with the fast growth of communication, it still adheres to certain positive

338

inclinations that help the individuals using this kind of social-networking in their daily living, and as for the negative effects to communication and social spheres formed, they are inevitable, it is best to minimize these disadvantages and turn it around.

Twitter Plurk

339

Bibliography
Dihl, J. (2009, Dec 24). How to use Plurk? Bukisa. Retrieved from http://www.bukisa.com/articles/218833_how-to-use-plurk) Hotz et al., 2010 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plurk Jansen et al., 2009 http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/ Lab, L., (2008). Linden Lab Acquires Plurk! Retrieved September 22, 2010, from http://www.secondeffects.com/2008/09/linden-lab-acquiresplurk.html Mack. (2008). Twitter vs Plurk. Retrieved September 22, 2010, from http://moblogsmoproblems.blogspot.com/2008/06/twitter-vs-plurk-wh o-wins.html Milstein, Chowdhury, Hochmuth, Lorica, & Magoulas, 2008 Mintz, T., (2008). InsideCrm. Plurk: A Welcoming Microblogging Community, from http://www.insidecrm.com/features/plurk-071008/ Nakano, C., (2009). The Twitter Population is Diverse and Growing. Retrieved September 22, 2010, from http://www.cmswire.com/cms/micro-cms /the-twitter-population-is-diverse-and-growing-003973.php Plurk. (2010). Plurk FAQ. Retrieved September 22, 2010, from

http://www.plurk.com/faq) The Reason they Log On: The evolution of communication, 2007, The New Media Consortium; released under a Creative Commons Attribution, from http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/) Twitter, (2010), Twitter 101. http://twitter.com/about Retrieved September September 22, 22, 2010, 2010, from from

Twitter, (2010.) Twitter 101. Retrieved http://business.twitter.com/twitter101

340

Xar j Blog and Podcast. (2008). Retrieved September 23, 2010, from http://www.xarj.net/2008/twitter-vs-plurk/)