Friday, 6 September 2013

Twitter-is-not-a-blog.

Image retrieved from: http://www.border6.com/
In a world that is 'always on' a change in the way we record our thoughts was inevitable. Mcneill (2011) states that the blog is a de-evolution of the diary from one of its earliest forms - a recording of the author's travels to be sent home for their family to read and enjoy - to a very private, often hidden  expression of their thoughts and experiences of their day-to-day life, to the blog an intentional posting of the authors thoughts and day-to-day activities, written for a specific audience.

The blog (internet diary) has undergone another de-evolution, with the introduction of Twitter in July 2006. A social network that's sole purpose is to allow people to instantly publish their raw unedited 'diary' directly to their readers (followers). This change in the genre of the diary raises some interesting questions about society and our 'need' to know what is happening in the life of others that we may have never met. The format of the tweet is such that you are limited to delivering your experiences in 140 characters, this is how "genre tells us how to produce and to understand texts" (Van Luyn 2103) the shortening of words such as 'with' to 'w/.' implies that the reader of the tweet as Mcneill (21011) puts it '"in the know" they share in a collective knowledge of how texts within the genre are to be constructed and the information that they hold. The invention of the social networks such as Twitter has drastically change the way that we communicate and exchange ideas and stories with people all over the world.



References:

Mcneill L. (2011) Diary 2.0? A Genre Moves from Page to Screen. In Language and New Media:                                Linguistic,   Cultural, and Technological Evolutions Rowe C. and Wyss E. p. 313 - 323                                               - University of British Columbia. Hampton Press 


Van Luyn, A. (2013). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, Narratives and the Making of Place, Lecture 6, Genre [Power Point Slides] Townsville, Australia, Retrieved from http://www.learnjcu.edu.au
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1 comment:

  1. Unknown7 September 2013 at 21:11

    Hey Adam,
    I think twitter is a great example of how the Diary has changed throughout modern times. As McNeill (2011) put it, "Certainly, the mode has taken on new, sometimes multimodal features, and potentially new – or at least different – uses, as it reaches out to wider, responsive audiences”. The 140 character limitation and twitter lingo as you mentioned is a good example of this. As someone who has never used twitter before I was very interested to learn that there was a 140 character limitation on tweets. I also found the link to "How To Tweet Like A Pro in 140 Characters—Or Less" quite amusing as to the extent that some people would ever go to fit their tweet.

    McNeill, L. (2011). Diary 2:0?: A Genre Moves from Page to Screen. Language and New Media (313-323). New Jersey: Hampton Press Inc.

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