Twitter vs. Facebook Throwdown

Twitter vs. Facebook Throwdown

If Facebook and twitter were to have a throw down I would have to establish myself on team Facebook. Not because I enjoy Facebook more, in actuality I prefer twitter more.

            Over the years I have begun using Facebook for purposes un-related to “social media. Facebook has become a space that I use to store photos, for example- unknown to the public; I have numerous albums on my personal Facebook that only I can view. Yes, Facebook “owns” the rights to these photos but in reality they do not own the rights to my privacy settings, nor can they alter them without my permission. Thus, I do not really care what geek sitting in the “Facebook Corporation” or whatever it is they do…that could possibly view these albums? If they even do that? To sum it up, he does not know me and the likelihood of us ever meeting, let alone this situation even occurring to begin with is little to 0 chance. I use Facebook in this manor because once the updated version of “Timeline” was released it was evident that Facebook (unlike my past computers) is probably never going to crash. Thus, I use it as a space to store photos that I do not want to lose in addition to information in general.  I commonly will inbox myself reminders or information that I am afraid I may forget or lose. Alike many of my friends who email themselves I find this to be easier to 1. find and 2. Do/actually remember. I don’t know about you but I get a million emails a day and it can be easy to overlook one.

            In addition to using Facebook as a method of (more or less) extended storage I also use Facebook’s group application on a regular basis. I have a group for my relatives, home friends, and sorority sisters. Facebook groups have the ability to post thread discussions in which people in the group can comment on, like, etc. Post videos and photos, etc. I especially find this useful now as a majority of my home friends are abroad- between the time differences and cell phone fees the group we created has made it easy to stay in touch!

However…. I rarely post on friends wall’s or look at my friend’s pages. …Anymore. I will admit having “stalked” my peers in the past. Who didn’t? I think every girl can honestly admit to having their own personal “girl crush” whose outfits, boyfriend, and overall life seemed far more appealing than your own. It’s almost as if you are caught up in a good book and for a moment you think you’re Bella dating Edward but in my case I am Christen (my best friend) living abroad in Madrid…. you get caught up in the daydream, eh? Comparable, relatable? (Well that’s how I USED to use Facebook) But in reality, the girl crush and stalking phase in my life has passed and instead of seeing who is in their life, looking at photos to get an idea, etc. I would much rather prefer logging onto twitter and reading in a short couple lines of what it is they are actually doing. I also love that twitter makes it easy for you to share photos by allowing you to use instagram in addition to their own method; “twitpic”.  One of my most favorite features of twitter is the capacity limit of 60 characters. Many times people can get caught up in their own lives and forget their audiences/ that they are broadcasting to a large majority who probably do not want to read a paragraph of the break up you are going through…. The limit of 60 characters makes people think about what they actually want to say and creates a much more enjoyable social media feed. I personally only follow people that I find to be enjoyable, I hate when my twitter feed is spammed (whether it be by a parody account I’m following or a peer who is a constant negative Nancy.)

That being said, the follower vs. friend are also a completely different pool of people, of course there are overlaps amongst the two but often times people that I would have otherwise accepted as my friend on Facebook will not be someone I allow to follow me on twitter. Note my last blog post- I have just created my first public account; prior to this public account twitter was my safe haven of free thoughts. Exposing myself to a small crowd of followers- I do not allow large social media accounts to follow people nor me I do not legitimately know. In the past, I have allowed many people that in my opinion- I do not know well enough are my friend on Facebook. This past summer I actually struggled with this debacle when one day I was bored at my internship and realized there is no way I know over 1,000 people well enough for them to be able to view my photos, location, wall posts, etc. In all honestly, its creepy and exposing- if I knew how to work timeline correctly my photos would be blocked from everyone but me…. Everyday I attempt to un-friend at least 10 people that I do not know.

Moreover, outside of my personal usage of Twitter and Facebook, I believe the two are quite comparable within the overall mission, ability, and opportunity. Both missions appear to be social media tools used to broadcast a message, idea, etc. that you want your peers to know whether it be personal, business related, etc. Both are methods of staying communicating and exemplifying what your doing, whether that be using Facebook to create a page demonstrating your new entrepreneurship idea or tweeting about what it is you are doing with a link to your website, etc. Both create a space in which you can use to your advantage in whatever way you chose. For example, last year we used twitter to live tweet updates from the event Spring on Fourth, What’s on Third? #SOFWOT broadcasting pictures and event details such as, photo’s of Blue-sky, last years costume winner’s serving their Chile to costumers outside. Advertising the event in this manor generated a lot of feedback in addition to a larger audience and the event attendees feeling involved.

Readers digest version:

I could live without Facebook, its easier reading a tweet and seeing what all my homies are up to. But in the long run, I need Facebook for all that I physically store there and data I would not want to lose. It is more realistic and offers a larger majority of features. In actuality, it’s interesting because Facebook now owns the rights to twitter and twitter allows you to share your instagrams…

Twitter and Facebook are both social media outlets that allow you to stay connected with friends/peers through broadcasting personal and/or business related ventures. Both are effective and successful- I personally prefer a more private audience and am thriving towards that goal. However that specific element of how many friends, follows, etc. you have depends entirely on the individual user.