Part II - Twitter: My Favorite Social Media Platform
While reading Part II of "The New Digital Storytelling: Creating New Narratives with New Media" by Bryan Alexander, he discusses the many different platforms used for storytelling.
Being a Generation X'er - I existed in a space where there was no internet, no cellphones, no WIFI. I also experienced the advent and launch of social media - from the very early days of AOL chatrooms, to MySpace, then Facebook and eventually Twitter and/or Instagram and every other platform we use to engage each other in this day and age.
Although Alexander references Twitter as the "least likely story telling platform of all" - I couldn't disagree more (61). The use of hashtags has allowed users to follow a specific thread of tweets (or conversations) to create a story or linear sequence of events (61-64). Users can also utilize the hashtag to create a certain artistic, emotional or even psychological response from followers/other users (61). As stated when discussing a twitter thread that reenacted "War of the Worlds," other users are also able to add to the story, making Twitter an almost cooperative storytelling tool (61-64).
These micro-narratives often hook followers into reading or wanting more - to follow and interact with you and know more of your ideas or even just to know what happens next in your story, and you have complete creative control to present the story in the way you want. I can't tell you how many times I have tried dialogue out with my followers and have changed the way a character says or does something.
Twitter also utilizes the use of aphorisms - or short bursts - that can sometimes seem facetious. I can understand how it would seem that way, but I don't necessarily know if I agree that it doesn't take time to think about a tweet or that it is somehow impulsive in nature. From my experience the truth is, most times you struggle to try to get your actual thought to come out the way it's meant to!
Work Cited
Alexander, Bryan. "Part II: New Platforms for Tales and Telling." The New Digital Storytelling: Creating Narratives with New Media. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2011. 47-122. Print.
Being a Generation X'er - I existed in a space where there was no internet, no cellphones, no WIFI. I also experienced the advent and launch of social media - from the very early days of AOL chatrooms, to MySpace, then Facebook and eventually Twitter and/or Instagram and every other platform we use to engage each other in this day and age.
Although Alexander references Twitter as the "least likely story telling platform of all" - I couldn't disagree more (61). The use of hashtags has allowed users to follow a specific thread of tweets (or conversations) to create a story or linear sequence of events (61-64). Users can also utilize the hashtag to create a certain artistic, emotional or even psychological response from followers/other users (61). As stated when discussing a twitter thread that reenacted "War of the Worlds," other users are also able to add to the story, making Twitter an almost cooperative storytelling tool (61-64).
These micro-narratives often hook followers into reading or wanting more - to follow and interact with you and know more of your ideas or even just to know what happens next in your story, and you have complete creative control to present the story in the way you want. I can't tell you how many times I have tried dialogue out with my followers and have changed the way a character says or does something.
Twitter also utilizes the use of aphorisms - or short bursts - that can sometimes seem facetious. I can understand how it would seem that way, but I don't necessarily know if I agree that it doesn't take time to think about a tweet or that it is somehow impulsive in nature. From my experience the truth is, most times you struggle to try to get your actual thought to come out the way it's meant to!
Work Cited
Alexander, Bryan. "Part II: New Platforms for Tales and Telling." The New Digital Storytelling: Creating Narratives with New Media. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2011. 47-122. Print.
Comments
Post a Comment