Twitter and Simple Forms of Literary Expression

Twitter is the most popular platform for microblogging, where short text updates(up to 140 words) are posted and distributed by means of instant messaging, sms, web interface. Microblogging is next in chain of technological tools for communication that follows blogging, social networking and other cyber social “places”. Etymologically microblogging derives from blogging plus the strand micro, from Greek mikros, “small”. The size of small blogging alters blogging characteristics in a range of angles - frequency, genre, subject, intentions.
An average blogger posts once in a few days when microblogging allows to make updates several times per day. Microblogging tends to be more communicative and colloquial. Bloggers write essays, cherishing writing skills, literary style, explicate informational basis and in some rare cases the content is not intended for public but to be a source.
Genres of blogging ranges from literature essays(on whatever subject, from journalistic to mundane) to entertainment photo or video blogging, business project blogging to educational blogging, etc. Twits evolve the genre of simple forms. In the history of literature to exemplify there are pieces of simple forms such as aphorisms, limericks(a light humorous, nonsensical, or bawdy verse of five anapestic lines), maxims(an expression of a general truth or principle, especially an aphoristic or sententious one: the maxims of La Rochefoucauld.), haiku, etc.
Haiku supposed to be an aristocratic genre in Japan, pieces of poetry in this genre were being created at emperor court. Masters of haiku put in them feelings of universal peace, meditativeness and slight melancholy. Japanese call this state as “avare” that can be translated as “elegiac fascination of things”. In place of linear perspective of European vision in haiku is implemented a diffused one. The main principle of haiku is “dzuihicu”- a principle of unintentional and unbiased description.
The resemblance between haiku and twits lies only in size as the feeling they produce are as different as European and Eastern cultures are. Haiku are about universal peace, twits – universal pulse. Twits form popular, mostly mundane pieces that reflect life on the go. Most posts on Twitter talk about daily routine or what people are currently doing. This is the largest and most common use of Twitter. According to the results of the research held by Akshay Java, Xiaodan Song, Tim Finin and Belle Tseng and concluded in the work “Why We Twitter: Understanding Microblogging Usage and Communities” the most usable words in twitter posts in the order of descending in popularity are just, com, work, time, listening, home, going, day, got, today, good, bed, night, tinyurl, getting, podcast, dinner, watching, like, mass, lunch, new, tomorrow, ready, twitter, working, tonight, morning, need, great, finished, tv. Words vary depending on the interest group, but still the only poetry within is the poetry of everyday life.

The majority of “simple forms” are inherent to a popular culture, as Umberto Eco points in his article “Umberto Eco: Simple forms and Short Forms” in which he speaks on Andre Jolles’s book “Simple forms” (“Einfache Formen”). These literature forms are characterized by the shortness and structural simplicity, so always adheres to the precise laws, which their authors(individual or collective) stick to.
In traditional structural theories simple forms are the subject of research and interest of a number of researchers(Claude Levi-Strauss, Propp). What Umberto Eco says about “simple forms” is: “intense expansion of brief forms can be resulted in getting used to their shortness and easiness for understanding and take away the pleasure and desire to take interest in difficult forms, understanding of which requires time and collaboration with text and its cultural background.”

Facebook in Socio-Cultural Aspect

According to the statistics the age majority of facebook users is 19 years olds albeit facebook is universal and there are thousands of users aged more than 60. Every age audience seeks distinct gains and responses and has attitude associated with its age system of values. Nevertheless the unifying factor of social network is that it is social and it socializes everybody, makes part of a public, makes be in a group or network and have “friends” or more correctly to say networking bodies.

Generally speaking it terms of effecting the culture and society, social network sites have a great resonance and constitute a historic artifact that characterizes the years of boom of SNS(Social Network Sites).

The spread of social networks had a viral character, when thousands and thousands of people in short period of time tabbed themselves in online environment and became a part of cybersociety. The feelings of excitement, than infatuation and than addiction acompanied the process of cyber socialisation. As SNS brought enhanced possibilities in social activities, that real life society can’t offer. Indeed, the quantity of “friends” some people have on social networks may seem unrealistic for real life. The notion “friends” is distorted in cybersociety and does not really fits with what we understand as friends in real life.

“The term "Friends" can be misleading, because the connection does not necessarily mean friendship in the everyday vernacular sense,”- Danah Boyd and Nicole B. Ellison "Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship”.

Nevertheless complaints about measliding character of the term “friends” are not heard, on the contrary everybody is happy to have hundreds of ‘Friends” as online world let you have endless quantity of friends and that is the magic and the trick of it.

In the article “Why Youth Heart Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life" Danah focuses on and research the group of social network she calls “teenagers” , 14-18 high school people, young Americans. Examining the practices of teenagers on social networks, she focuses primarily on MySpace.

“If you are not on my space – you don’t exist” – she cites a teenager. Of course the world of a teenager is about extremes, but it shows things sharper. The role of presence in online society, positioning oneself and being active in is bigger than one of acting in real society, or deeply connected and effect the real social life.

Can an adult person address his attitude to a social network as a teenager did? Is it true about all the rest but teenagers – if you are not on my space – you don’t exist?

The ubiquity of SNS proves the existence of a second society, online society, along with the one in real world. People tend to flock, gather in groups, networks, society, to be in herd. Having more “friends” adds confidence. In different times people flocked around different ideas, movements and felt inspired. The technology made it possible to realize the greatest imaginary society that meets a number of human inner needs.

The population of Facebook reaches a large scope of ages, and the emotional teenager's must be on it doesn't not always work with grown up people. The purpose of joining a SNS, facebook in particular can be friend-driven and/or interest-driven.

Once an individum created a profile he becomes a part of a group of friends, classmates, colleagues or people of the same interests. Not everybody realizes when registering at facebook, that socializing goes beyond the relations between your profile and your friend’s ones, the user reveals himself to the whole world of internet becoming searchable in search engines. The availability of information, the great benefit of internet became relevant to the information about people, internet space fits the whole universe, and indeed nothing on earth is not in there(almost).

The audience of facebook is diverse in age and interests, it includes teenagers and scientists, celebrities and politicians. Though the latters are the people who aims at exposing themselves before the public. Referring to danah :“By and large, when politicians and activists talk about using MySpace and Facebook, they aren’t talking about using it the way most people do; they are talking about leveraging it as a spamming device”.

In her essay “Digital Handshakes in Networked Publics: Why Politicians Must Interact, Not Broadcast” she reveals that characteristics of internet social networks akin to the ones of social groups in real life. People online needs to be approached personally, not through an aide, they need a politician to swing round the circle and handshake with them, digitally.