If movies move by us at 24 frames per second, life itself now moves by us at 140 characters per thought. And that’s thanks to Twitter.
Twitter is everywhere. From people’s t-shirts, to the CNN news crawl to, probably, your child’s computer, it’s impossible to get away from it. But what exactly is the latest craze in social networking, is it safe, and what are the pros and cons of my child using it?
Don’t worry. Kidglue is here to answer all your questions.
WHAT IS IT?
Twitter, basically, is a site where people can post their thoughts 140 characters at a time (that includes punctuation, letters and spaces). It’s a mini-blog. So for example, my Twitter right now would say “Currently writing an article about Twitter for Kidglue.com. Check it out on the site later!” and I still have 49 characters to spare. The draw of this is that not only can all your friends can see what you are doing but you can also see what the world is doing.
To that aim, celebrities like Ashton Kutcher and Miley Cyrus, athletes like Dwight Howard and Shaquille O’Neal and even politicians like John McCain and Sarah Palin all – regularly – post their thoughts on Twitter. The list of famous people who use the site is quite literally endless as new ones pop on all the time.
You then choose to “Follow” whomever you like and then you can see, in real time, what they are writing all on one page and vice versa.
IS IT SAFE?
Considering that your kids can only post a set amount of personal information, one photo and 140 characters at a time, yes, Twitter is safer than most sites. Plus, unless they manipulate the settings, parents can quite easily check in on what their kids are doing as individual posts never go away. How do you check? Well, just go to “twitter.com” backslash (/) whatever the name they use. “Twitter.com/JohnnyRocks” or whatever. On that page you can not only see every message they post to everyone, but messages they post to friends (refered to as At (as in “@”) messages) and a list of everyone they follow and who follows them back.
The only privacy that is on Twitter is the Direct Messaging. But the only way someone can direct message another is if both parties follow each other. So be sure to let your kids know that they should ONLY follow people who they know or trust. Like Ashton Kutcher. (I joke but celebrities find Twitter useful because a million people can follow them at once but, unless that celebrity chooses to follow someone back, there really isn’t any connection. If they can maintain their privacy, so can your kids.)
CAN MY KIDS LEARN FROM IT?
Undoubtedly. Besides celebrities, athletes and online writers, Twitter is chock full of important users. Politicians for one. News sites for another and much more. Make a pact with your kids. They can use Twitter all they want as long as they follow, and read, certain people like “BreakingNews” or “CNN.” Talk about mixing current events with their social lives and keep finding new and interesting users to follow. Plus the immediacy is stunning. World news, from earthquakes to plane crashes to celebrity deaths, are all broken on Twitter first because people on the scene post about it.
Plus, being forced to limit your thoughts to 140 characters is a great exercise in writing. It makes word choice and sentence structure so important.
MORE QUESTIONS?
Post them here and I’ll do my best to answer them. Until then, Tweet away!
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