My Personal Twitter Reflection

Using Twitter for a study in a class was a very unique experience for me. I am not an avid user of Twitter or social media but by making myself interact with the platform multiple times a week it exposed me to new ideas I had not seen before. One of the first things I noticed was the ability to design the timeline you wish to see by following certain accounts and people. By doing this, I was able to only see particular types of news, tweets and replies that I either wanted to see or had interest in. By not following as many accounts as I have on my main Twitter, it was very interesting to only read tweets from a particular view. Obviously, I realized that the more accounts a person follows, the more content they see and will eventually be able to see differing sides to issues or situations happening in the world. This is important because it can be really bad for society to only chose to see and read the type of information that a person agrees to, without having to experience the other side of the argument or story. New Media, such as twitter can have major impacts on our lives in various ways. Unlike typical news outlets or information sources, twitter offers the ability for users to engage all kinds of content that may not be addressed on a news platform. While the news mainly covers large national stories that are of interest to the public, Twitter offers a place for smaller stories to be told that wouldn’t be big enough to make it to the main stage of news. That beings said, it is also a platform full or disinformation and people hiding behind their keyboards berating other users for fun. I spent most of my time on twitter reading articles from the various accounts on twitter, and retweeting them with a comment that I found interesting about the article. I used this platform not as a way to interact with others so much, but as a means to consume information that I found interesting. Along the way I did have a chance to interact with our classmates by commenting on their tweets, or reading some of the articles they chose to share, but I did not comment on a random twitter user post or reply. I learned that as a person, I do not wish to engage with other users in the comment section or argue points that I did not agree with. I am not sure why I chose to ignore to respond, but I found myself preferring to consume information from these accounts rather than spend time interacting with others.

Using Twitter for class was very different than using my personal twitter account. While I do not use my personal account often, I was still experienced in the operations of twitter and how the site and its users work. I found myself interacting with my classmates more, and actually tweeting out on the account. On my main twitter, I have not tweeted or replied to anything in a few years, but on my class account it was weird for me to be tweeting multiple times a week. This opened me up to being more engaging on social media and not having to worry about any scrutiny I may receive. As I tweeted I was still careful not to say anything divisive or controversial and found comfort in knowing not everything you say on social media will be attacked like it usually is.

It was also unique for me to obtain a majority of my news through twitter during my use of it for class, as it brings a whole new perspective to articles. Reading the comments under each tweet tells a completely different story than the one that may have been posted. Users are given the opportunity to debate each other on the topic, but as I read on, I realized a majority of it was insults throw at someone who they disagreed with. I found this to be very counterproductive to the idea that social media can foster arguments and challenge critical thinking. There are a few examples of users actually engaging in civil debates but most of the time if someone disagrees with a statement, users bully them until they stop replying.

I would not say that I am good at twitter in any way. I do enjoy reading funny tweets, laughing at videos and gaining knowledge from various news outlets but I would not consider myself to be active enough or good at the app. People who are good at twitter can gain a massive following by targeting particular audiences with their tweets and then continue to build on them by expanding their content. Understanding their followers minds, they can influence them in certain ways to allow for maximum exposure and viral tweets.

In the future, I plan to continue my use of twitter by being non-active but still read and like tweets that I sense to be important or funny. I do not believe I will begin tweeting like I have been in class, but it was still a fun experience to do so. My favorite part about my experience on twitter has to be the interactions we had as a class. Having to pick a few of our favorite songs, or tweeting out about some of the second life projects was entertaining to me. That engagement developed more conversations and new ideas that I had not thought of yet. The worst part about my time on twitter was the politicization of every topic. I found this to be the case just about every time a major media outlet tweeted something that wouldn’t have anything to do with politics. On both the right and left, users would harass the platforms of CNN, Fox, MSNBC etc by calling them fake news or trying to find any reason to argue against their points. These unnecessary comments usually always found their way to the top and ruined my experience of reading some things that actually pertained to the article. Overall, I had a great experience and learned a lot through this process.

Analysis of LeBron James’s Twitter Account

LeBron James is a professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers and has been thought of as one of the best athletes of all time. Currently, his twitter account is home to over 45 million followers, making him the 24th most followed account. As a professional athlete, James’s followers mainly consist of sports fans, players, media personnel, and others related to the sports world. While most of his feed consists of him recognizing other players, promotional tweets for the Lakers and sponsors, he also stays very connected to his followers with tweets everyone can relate to. He has also been an advocate for a few social issues, as well as other issues that have been highly covered throughout the sports world. Many athletes keep their social media presence focused on their sport but LeBron is one of the few that will tweet about an issue that he has found frustrating or does not agree with.

According to Sonja Foss in Framing the Study of Visual Rhetoric: Toward a Transformation of Rhetorical Theory, visual rhetoric can have a definition of “a product individuals create as they use visual symbols for the purpose of communicating” (304). LeBron using visuals in a few of his tweets because it can get the message he trying to send to his audience quicker without typing a long message. An example of this includes LeBron’s continued promotion of his children’s foundation. Instead of typing paragraphs of information about it to increase awareness, LeBron caption retweets the foundations dozens of times in order to promote the good being done. Most of these tweets use visuals from the work they are doing to send a happy message of hope to their followers, letting them know how they are helping the community.

LeBron consistently is spreading a sense of hard work and charity to his followers, while also appeasing to the basketball fans with videos of his interviews and highlights from games. He is one of the more unique athlete accounts on twitter due to him straying from just sticking to his sport. While I believe most of his followers are mainly basketball fans, he has amassed such a following that it is impossible not to think many of his followers are just supporters of his work in his community. His social media platform has allowed him to break out of the basketball world, and into the spotlight for other social and community issues. People respect and admire LeBron for his talent and dedication to others on and off the court.

Works Cited

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