Why I’d Rather Tweet

My younger brother asked me recently if I’m “on Twitter and Facebook?” When I told him that I am, he was surprised, wondering why anyone would make such a mad life choice. I explained to him that there are useful aspects to using both websites, as they do different things. For instance, Twitter is more like a blog than a social network, and I far prefer its format to that of Facebook. Depending on how bored I am, or how many brilliant quips I come up with, I can Tweet multiple times in one day; I think my record is around 60. Some days I don’t Tweet at all, although these are becoming increasingly rare. On the other hand, it’s unusual for me to post a Facebook status more than once or twice a week. I read the news feed multiple times a day, but don’t use the site to interact as much as I did a couple of years ago.

The repetitive mundanity of most people’s Facebook statuses and comments often puts me off posting, and this isn’t helped by how long these posts can sometimes be. Unlike Facebook, Twitter has a 140-character limit per Tweet. While it’s possible to convey a longer message across three or four Tweets, or provide a link to other websites such as TwitLonger.com, I like the character limit. It brings a certain art to writing a good Tweet, and I can’t describe to you the satisfaction I get from successfully redrafting a Tweet that once contained 171 characters. I don’t enjoy scrolling down my Facebook news feed to find paragraph-long complaints about somebody’s lunch. It may be stretching it somewhat to compare the skill of Tweeting to writing a Haiku, but there is something to be said for the succinctness of a good Tweet.

Another reason I prefer Twitter is that I can’t be bothered with all the politics that goes along with Facebook. It throws up too many questions: is it weird to add somebody as a friend, when you only met them last night? Maybe I should just wait for them to add me, but what if they don’t? This status is clearly meant as a dig at someone; should I “like” it? It’s funny, but they might get annoyed with me. Worst of all is the issue of deleting somebody as a friend. I imagine there are few things more awkward than bumping into someone you’ve removed from your friends list, and being asked why you did it. Or perhaps meeting someone whose request you ignored, where you risk being asked why you rejected their application for cyber-friendship. To avoid all of this, you need to accept all friend requests, and keep everyone as your friend forever. And what if there’s a real-life falling out? Is it then petty to delete that person, or is it the sensible, adult thing to do? It’s all very complicated, and ultimately pointless.

One of the things I like about Twitter is that “following” people is different from being “friends” on Facebook. If you want to follow someone on Twitter, you don’t need to be approved by them, unless they’ve set their account to private, and they don’t need to follow you back. So, I can see the Tweets of everyone I follow, but they don’t have to see mine unless they choose to follow me too.  There are various reasons for this: some of these people are famous, such as Stephen Fry, Eddie Izzard and Michael J. Fox, who have thousands, or perhaps even millions, of followers, and can’t be expected to follow all of them in return. Other accounts that I follow exist only to share news, like @Number10gov, which Tweets on behalf of the Prime Minister, and @TrendsGlasgow, which tells followers the current topics of discussion among Glasgow Tweeters. There are also ordinary people, who I don’t know but whose accounts I’ve stumbled across, and have found funny or informative. As I Tweet on a wide range of subjects – such as film and television, university, football, food and drink, and random observations – I don’t expect all my friends to follow me. These won’t interest all of my friends, and I’m not as offended by someone’s decision not to follow, or to “unfollow”, me, as I would be if they “unfriended” me on Facebook. I Tweet and I read Tweets for my own entertainment, not for keeping in touch with people.

Although it has many more users than any other social network, Facebook seems very insecure about the possibility of losing its account holders, often undergoing redesigns and introducing new features. For example, in the last couple of years it has brought in the ability to “tag” friends in status updates, much like what Twitter has had since its inception in 2006. Facebook has also introduced the concept of “subscribing”, which allows users to receive posts from somebody else in their timeline, without actually being friends with them. This suggests that Facebook has been influenced by Twitter, and wants to be more like it. Additionally, this new “timeline” profile has been met with a largely negative response. The timeline is intended to be a way to “tell your story from beginning, to middle, to now,” and “highlight your most memorable posts, photos and life events.” It’s less linear in its structure than the old profile, as posts are distributed around the page in various columns, which follow no logical pattern. This constant change reeks of desperation to keep people interested. It’s like when you finally learn where everything is in the supermarket and then they move it all around again.

Meanwhile, Twitter has had minimal overhauls. Aside from a slightly modified homepage and the launch of the Retweet button, there isn’t much that’s changed since I joined Twitter almost three years ago. It’s a tried and tested format, and it is one which is popular with its users.

If it weren’t for the fact that most of my friends use Facebook as one of their primary means of communication, I almost certainly wouldn’t be on it. On the other hand, if none of my friends used Twitter, I still would. I can’t afford to buy a newspaper every day, nor do I have the time to read one, but the diverse group of people I follow on Twitter provides me with links to the most important, most interesting and most bizarre news stories out there. If my brother had his way, and we could only use one of the two, I would pick Twitter over Facebook. It’s much more fun and worthwhile to use.