Yesterday there was flurry of Twitter conversation after John Humphrys was heard saying less than complimentary things about Twitter on the Today programme.
It surprises me the number of people I meet who, upon any mention of Twitter (usually theirs not mine), say 'I don't get it' or 'what's the point of it?' - not just in a neutral, enquiring way but almost antagonistically.
So what is the point? What do we get out of it - what's our motivation for tweeting?
There was a 'teens don't tweet' story a few months back, which although subsequently revealed to be anecdotal, gave rise to a number of studies and comments, asking firstly if there was any truth in it, and secondly, if so, why?
I particularly liked this article by Brian Chiger on Why Teens Just Aren't That Into Twitter, in which he argues that Twitter differs from Facebook in that it doesn't facilitate what teenagers are into - the sharing of content for the purposes of peer approval. Twitter, on the other hand, is more of a broadcast medium. In other words, "to oversimplify, teens tend to seek approval (implicit and explicit) from their peers, while we adults quite like the sounds of our own voices."
I'm not sure I'm with him all the way on this - my feeling is that Twitter should not be used as a broadcast medium, and that those doing so risk being at best ignored and at worst berated. My own personal experience of the two networks is that Facebook status updates are far less likely to generate interaction than my comments on Twitter, but admittedly I spend far less time on Facebook and have a very different set of friends there.
Which might suggest that a key factor is not just age but the degree to which the person is embedded in the community and the nature and makeup of the individual's social network. Since the majority of 14 - 24 year olds are using Facebook as a primary means of online communication and have been doing so for some time, they probably see little reason to put in the time and effort required to create a network of value on Twitter.
For those of us using Twitter, I would say that far from lacking the 'social currency' that teens crave, the minutiae of daily interaction (re-tweets, follows, favourites, conversations, comments, asking advice, sharing of information, photos, contacts etc) delivers exactly the same kind of peer approval and validation sought by teenagers. With just fewer 'OMG THAT IS SOOOO COOL' comments, or photos of drunk friends at parties.
It's not as easy as saying 'I tweet in order to get the approval/respect/validation of my peers' - which of course is exactly what the naysayers enjoy turning into stories about 'sad tweeters with no friends or life worth speaking of'.
But having the ear of members of your community, feeling you're a valued contributor, having your opinions debated (even if not always approved of) - those are powerful motivational forces, surely, within any section of society.
