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To Tweet or Not to Tweet?

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To Tweet or Not to Tweet?
Chelsey Austin
Ms. Keeling
ENGL 1010-001
26 September 2011

To Tweet Or Not To Tweet
In his essay, which appears on Slate.com, “Do I Really Have To Join Twitter?” Farhad Manjoo focuses on the social blogging site Twitter, and how he disagrees with the necessity of having such a random site like Twitter. He does not understand why people want to share every little detail of his or her life by posting tweets on Twitter. He believes the main reason people blog is so they will be able to keep up to date on the latest gossip. Manjoo argument is not convincing because he only uses what he believes is true and not the point of view of other people. He does not give Twitter any complements; instead, he only gives negative views of the blog. By not giving Twitter any positive feedback, Manjoo, does not give the reader the whole overview of Twitter, in which some features Twitter offers is benefical.
With over 10 million people using Twitter, most would state that Twitter is the ultimate blogging site available, but Manjoo does not believe this to be true. Manjoo does reveal convincing explanation of why he believes Twitter to be useless. He compares the social blogging site to Facebook; he tells that Facebook is a much better way to stay connected to friends and family members. He states that twitter is, “not a faster or easier way of doing something you did in the past” and “It’s a totally alien form of communication” (149). Manjoo makes it appear that there are faster, and eaiser ways to communicate, but if that were the case over 10 million people would not have a Twitter. With the fast past lifestyles people live they enjoy the quickest way possible of doing anything instead of the slowest.
By Manjoo describing how Twitter works, this gives the reader a better understanding of why he believes the social network site is not so great. He explains that opposite of Facebook, Twitter does not require a user to follow other users that follow them, meaning it has a



Cited: Manjoo, Farhad. “Do I Really Have To Join Twitter?” The Mcgraw Hill Reader. Ed.Gilbert H.Muller. New York: Mcgraw Hill, 2011. 148-150. Print

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