When Internet appeared and people started having access to the computer
networks a new era seemed to begin. Now we can communicate with people living
on the other side of the world, we can learn, read and watch new things through
our computer and even work on Internet.
Internet was founded on October 29, 1969 but it wasn't until late 90's
when it expanded and became the tool and phenomenon we know today. After the
boom it generated, the network stabilized, expanded worldwide and became
accessible for most of the world's population.
We tend to think that everyone is connected to the network and we often
forget all those who don't have the opportunity or skills to use it. The digital divide is an economic and social
inequality between groups of person that don't have access to information and
communication technology within a geographic area, society or community.
But within people who has access to Internet seems to be a general
thinking that the big network is going to change our future and even our
present.
With the beginning of Internet it was also the beginning of Social
Networking services, online platforms to build social relations among people
who share activities and interests. The firsts ones were Theglobe.com and Geocities,
after appeared Linkedin and MySpace but the now is Facebook the biggest one.
After Facebook, Twitter is the second most used social network. It is a
microblogging site where users can share 140-character texts and read what have
write other users. Unlike Facebook, where you have to sing up to see what other
say (and be friends of them) on Twitter you can read almost everything (not a
lot of people change their privacy preferences) and it has become a top source
for real-time news sharing.
Social networks like Facebook and Twitter have made possible what we
know as citizen journalism and have
been a very important part of recent social movements like Arab Spring and 15-M Movement in Spain. These networks facilitated
the communication between citizens and move protest from Internet to the
streets.
Even after these movements finish these networks have continued to be
seen as one of the best options for users to express their opinions, protest
against governments and raise their voice. People can comment on online news
and share what they want. We observe what is trending topic on Twitter and most of the time we think that what
happens on Internet is what happens on real life and that what people writes is
what population thinks. But is Internet the new general opinion or only a
distortion of it?
A recent study published by PeerReach analyzed the profile of Twitter
users and tried to found what they have in common all over the world and in
different countries. According to this study, there are 39 millions of Twitter
accounts in Spain, a country with 47,27 millions of population, but only 14% of
them were considered active accounts
(account that tweet frequently).
We also know that 43% of Twitter users are between 10 and 20 years old
and 37% of them are between 20 and 29. Another study showed that Spanish users
tend to have a more leftist thought that average population.
This highlights the youth of social networks users and also remind us
that not everything that is posted on Internet is what people thinks. Trending
topics doesn't mean political changes and Internet demands are not always
listened.
Sometimes there are issues that make Internet explode. People writes and
shares lots of information about it and then, after some days, it all
disappears. We live in a quick world, and Internet is also a quick movement.
But this doesn't mean that Twitter or Facebook are useless. They are new tools
and we are learning to use them. They can be very useful and they can help to
change things, but they aren't a magical wand.
No comments:
Post a Comment