Tag: Twitter

Twitter Stage Theory

I have been working on some material on group microblogging to add to my participatory web for learning site. I have been developing some content describing educational uses of Twitter and have been thinking about how people seem to react to Twitter. I am easily distracted and instead of finishing the material on Twitter, I decided to develop a developmental stage theory of Twitter users.

I discuss developmental stage theories in my work as a psychologist and while a little bit of a stretch perhaps some of the assumptions of stage theories apply to Twitter users. A major assumption proposes that not all individuals go through all stages and not at the same speed, but all individuals go through stages in the same order.

I do not know if the following diagram is self-explanatory or not, but it proposes three stages, it outlines the the realizations that allow some users to progress to the next stage, and the perspectives that encourages others to quit the Twitter community all together.

microblogstagesSo, I welcome you to test this model against your own experiences. If you have tried Twitter, which stage did you achieve?

BTW – the need a better tool links should probably be differentiated – I need a better tool vs. We need a better tool

P.S. – I noticed something interesting after I added this post to my blog. When you examine any single post on this blog, a plugin I have added to WordPress identifies what “it” thinks are similar posts I have generated on the same topic. In the case of this post, it generates earlier posts on Twitter. You can kind of see my own attitude change as I collect experiences with Twitter. Cool.

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Twitter

I guess I must admit being wrong. My initial reaction to Twitter was based on a present frame of reference without anticipating that an existing frame of reference can be changed by new experiences.

I have discovered I like to keep Twitter open in a side bar while I do other things (see image). This is a capability built into Flock (see image). I have also discovered that Twitter is down A LOT (see image) and you will not necessarily know this until after you carefully craft a message in < 140.

Man, my posts are getting short. Must be the Twitter experience. (Twitter address – so I feel the pressure to post).

Blogged with the Flock Browser

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Twitter

I have been experimenting with Twitter for a week or so. I am still not certain what I think. Letting folks know what I am doing on a regular basis does not come naturally. BTW – I am in MSP, babysitting, and watching the Twins game. Twins are down to NYY.

I have also decided that I develop a different opinion when following individuals by Twitter and by blog. Over the years, I have focused on certain bloggers and have a high opinion of those I read on a regular basis. My reaction to their Twitter posts (if that is what the brief comments are called) has been very different. I get the impression they are trying too hard. I think big name bloggers are not the appropriate test cases for evaluating this tool. These folks don’t really interact and reading their short comments is not that interesting.

I will have to give it a little more time. Perhaps with a few more followers I will form a different opinion. I am guessing “regular folk” may use Twitter in a different way. I am guessing I will also have to do a better job of contributing to benefit much in return. BTW – I am “grabe” on Twitter.

I am experimenting with a new plugin (tagaroo) from Calais. The service is supposed to suggest useful tags. So far I am not impressed. The suggestion was “twins”. Perhaps I have said nothing the intelligent agent can interpret.

Wait – tagaroo generated intelligent agent.

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