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Twitter: A Biography
The sometimes surprising, often humorous story of the forces that came together to shape the central role Twitter now plays in contemporary politics and culture
Is Twitter a place for sociability and conversation, a platform for public broadcasting, or a network for discussion? Digital platforms have become influential in every sphere of communication, from the intimate and everyday to the public, professional, and political. Since the scrappy startup days of social media in the mid-2000s, not only has the worldwide importance of platforms grown exponentially, but also their cultures have shifted dramatically, in a variety of directions. These changes have brought new opportunities for progressive communities to thrive online, as well as widespread problems with commercial exploitation, disinformation, and hate speech.
Twitter's growth over the past decade, like that of much social media, has far surpassed its creators' vision. Twitter charts this trajectory in the format of a platform biography: a new, streamlined approach to understanding how platforms change over time. Through the often surprising, fast-moving story of Twitter, it illuminates the multiple forces--from politics and business to digital ideologies--that came together to shape the evolution of this revolutionary platform. Jean Burgess and Nancy K. Baym build a rich narrative of how Twitter has evolved as a technology, a company, and a culture, from its origins as a personal messaging service to its transformation into one of the most globally influential social media platforms, where history and culture is not only recorded but written in real time.
Is Twitter a place for sociability and conversation, a platform for public broadcasting, or a network for discussion? Digital platforms have become influential in every sphere of communication, from the intimate and everyday to the public, professional, and political. Since the scrappy startup days of social media in the mid-2000s, not only has the worldwide importance of platforms grown exponentially, but also their cultures have shifted dramatically, in a variety of directions. These changes have brought new opportunities for progressive communities to thrive online, as well as widespread problems with commercial exploitation, disinformation, and hate speech.
Twitter's growth over the past decade, like that of much social media, has far surpassed its creators' vision. Twitter charts this trajectory in the format of a platform biography: a new, streamlined approach to understanding how platforms change over time. Through the often surprising, fast-moving story of Twitter, it illuminates the multiple forces--from politics and business to digital ideologies--that came together to shape the evolution of this revolutionary platform. Jean Burgess and Nancy K. Baym build a rich narrative of how Twitter has evolved as a technology, a company, and a culture, from its origins as a personal messaging service to its transformation into one of the most globally influential social media platforms, where history and culture is not only recorded but written in real time.
144 pages, Hardcover
First published April 28, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 3, 2022
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: The sometimes surprising, often humorous story of the forces that came together to shape the central role Twitter now plays in contemporary politics and culture
Is Twitter a place for sociability and conversation, a platform for public broadcasting, or a network for discussion? Digital platforms have become influential in every sphere of communication, from the intimate and everyday to the public, professional, and political. Since the scrappy startup days of social media in the mid-2000s, not only has the worldwide importance of platforms grown exponentially, but also their cultures have shifted dramatically, in a variety of directions. These changes have brought new opportunities for progressive communities to thrive online, as well as widespread problems with commercial exploitation, disinformation, and hate speech.
Twitter's growth over the past decade, like that of much social media, has far surpassed its creators' vision. Twitter charts this trajectory in the format of a platform biography: a new, streamlined approach to understanding how platforms change over time. Through the often surprising, fast-moving story of Twitter, it illuminates the multiple forces—from politics and business to digital ideologies—that came together to shape the evolution of this revolutionary platform. Jean Burgess and Nancy K. Baym build a rich narrative of how Twitter has evolved as a technology, a company, and a culture, from its origins as a personal messaging service to its transformation into one of the most globally influential social media platforms, where history and culture is not only recorded but written in real time.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: The hashtag. The @. RTs and subtweets and "blue" (actually white) checkmarks. All of the detritus, or furnishings if one is feeling charitable, of social media are Twitter-invented or -popularized. It's a simple, basic idea, Twitter: Let people bloviate for a limited space (pictures added sometime in the 10s) about anything they want and let them find each other, build communities (and form lynch mobs), coordinate revolutions, all via the hashtag. TikTok was called Vine, and introduced by Twitter before their idiot management shuttered it. I got my Twitter account in 2007. Reading a tweet of mine is most likely why you're reading this review.
Now #MuskyTwitter is trending and this very concise book, only two-and-a-half years old, needs a second edition.
What I enjoyed most about the authors' treatment of the history of Twitter is that they were as focused as a good tweet-thread. They didn't succumb to bashing or whitewashing Twitter's many quirks. Aesthetically Twitter's changed itself, and the social-media world, the most. It's not like it's a design-heavy UI, right?
Wrong.
Twitter's look, and its effect on your engagement, is carefully calculated. It's part of a subtle message...stay, look, seek and find...that messages a deep sense of satisfaction with the activity itself, the results really are secondary to Twitter. So why is Twitter so awful at generating money from advertising? Ask Elon, he seems to know...but seriously, Twitter's main issue has always been about defining itself, when the authors contend (and I agree) that the three features in the first line of my review actually made Twitter a mutiple personality. There's a way to use each of those features to reinforce one's group identity...BookTwitter, HorrorTwitter, BlackTwitter...and thus make a broad-based ad-watching public pretty elusive. Creating ads for small, not-very-numerous communities isn't usually cost effective.
And here's Elon, steppin' into the buzz-saw. Heh.
What these Australian academics set out to do was set a protocol for biographizing (my ugly word, not theirs) technology. Take it innovation by innovation, look at the drivers of the innovations and the results from their adoption and/or morphing uses. They'll lead to larger conclusions about the platform, its users, and the social-media-verse we and they all exist within.
My idea of a well-presented technology book. Not too long, not loaded with tedious jargon, and not so basic as to cause me to wish it was just an owner's manual not an actual book. I liked the read, I liked the methods the authors used, and I enjoyed myself all the way through. (Except the endnotes, I didn't read those.)
The Publisher Says: The sometimes surprising, often humorous story of the forces that came together to shape the central role Twitter now plays in contemporary politics and culture
Is Twitter a place for sociability and conversation, a platform for public broadcasting, or a network for discussion? Digital platforms have become influential in every sphere of communication, from the intimate and everyday to the public, professional, and political. Since the scrappy startup days of social media in the mid-2000s, not only has the worldwide importance of platforms grown exponentially, but also their cultures have shifted dramatically, in a variety of directions. These changes have brought new opportunities for progressive communities to thrive online, as well as widespread problems with commercial exploitation, disinformation, and hate speech.
Twitter's growth over the past decade, like that of much social media, has far surpassed its creators' vision. Twitter charts this trajectory in the format of a platform biography: a new, streamlined approach to understanding how platforms change over time. Through the often surprising, fast-moving story of Twitter, it illuminates the multiple forces—from politics and business to digital ideologies—that came together to shape the evolution of this revolutionary platform. Jean Burgess and Nancy K. Baym build a rich narrative of how Twitter has evolved as a technology, a company, and a culture, from its origins as a personal messaging service to its transformation into one of the most globally influential social media platforms, where history and culture is not only recorded but written in real time.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: The hashtag. The @. RTs and subtweets and "blue" (actually white) checkmarks. All of the detritus, or furnishings if one is feeling charitable, of social media are Twitter-invented or -popularized. It's a simple, basic idea, Twitter: Let people bloviate for a limited space (pictures added sometime in the 10s) about anything they want and let them find each other, build communities (and form lynch mobs), coordinate revolutions, all via the hashtag. TikTok was called Vine, and introduced by Twitter before their idiot management shuttered it. I got my Twitter account in 2007. Reading a tweet of mine is most likely why you're reading this review.
Now #MuskyTwitter is trending and this very concise book, only two-and-a-half years old, needs a second edition.
What I enjoyed most about the authors' treatment of the history of Twitter is that they were as focused as a good tweet-thread. They didn't succumb to bashing or whitewashing Twitter's many quirks. Aesthetically Twitter's changed itself, and the social-media world, the most. It's not like it's a design-heavy UI, right?
Wrong.
Twitter's look, and its effect on your engagement, is carefully calculated. It's part of a subtle message...stay, look, seek and find...that messages a deep sense of satisfaction with the activity itself, the results really are secondary to Twitter. So why is Twitter so awful at generating money from advertising? Ask Elon, he seems to know...but seriously, Twitter's main issue has always been about defining itself, when the authors contend (and I agree) that the three features in the first line of my review actually made Twitter a mutiple personality. There's a way to use each of those features to reinforce one's group identity...BookTwitter, HorrorTwitter, BlackTwitter...and thus make a broad-based ad-watching public pretty elusive. Creating ads for small, not-very-numerous communities isn't usually cost effective.
And here's Elon, steppin' into the buzz-saw. Heh.
What these Australian academics set out to do was set a protocol for biographizing (my ugly word, not theirs) technology. Take it innovation by innovation, look at the drivers of the innovations and the results from their adoption and/or morphing uses. They'll lead to larger conclusions about the platform, its users, and the social-media-verse we and they all exist within.
My idea of a well-presented technology book. Not too long, not loaded with tedious jargon, and not so basic as to cause me to wish it was just an owner's manual not an actual book. I liked the read, I liked the methods the authors used, and I enjoyed myself all the way through. (Except the endnotes, I didn't read those.)
May 8, 2020
The book is a little bit of a love letter to the Twitter that was! The platform biography approach squeezes a lot in to the 140 (!) pages, but it's impossible to read this and not feel immediately more informed about Twitter, more interested in where it's going, but also a lot more familiar with the things (RT, @, & #) that made the platform unique.
July 27, 2022
Its a good book that talks about evolution of Twitter and the three breakthroughs it went through.. the @, the # and the RT. Good read if you are a tech savvy person. And specially for system designers
May 25, 2022
Found this in the library and thought this could be quick primer to the current news on Elon Musk taking over Twitter as a major shareholder.
Strangely, the book spends ¼ of the volume setting the intro and rationale for the entire treatise, and later goes into very bare-bones analysis based on a subset of interview info which theoretically is hard to defend or draw learning points from.
In its execution, the book takes a simplistic “biographical” view of 3 features of Twitter (which in itself is not uninteresting but each chapter tends to end abruptly). Given that the history of Twitter from 2006 to now, more can be written and referenced into something useful for the reader. It appears to be like a lengthened academic paper being churned into a book, and which could even be a shortened article or blog entry.
In conclusion, the book interestingly acknowledges that it is incomplete at the end, but in reality the whole book barely sets out to do the things it wanted to do in the introduction.
Strangely, the book spends ¼ of the volume setting the intro and rationale for the entire treatise, and later goes into very bare-bones analysis based on a subset of interview info which theoretically is hard to defend or draw learning points from.
In its execution, the book takes a simplistic “biographical” view of 3 features of Twitter (which in itself is not uninteresting but each chapter tends to end abruptly). Given that the history of Twitter from 2006 to now, more can be written and referenced into something useful for the reader. It appears to be like a lengthened academic paper being churned into a book, and which could even be a shortened article or blog entry.
In conclusion, the book interestingly acknowledges that it is incomplete at the end, but in reality the whole book barely sets out to do the things it wanted to do in the introduction.
February 7, 2020
This is not so much a book as is is a really long research about Twitter. The authors don’t tell interesting stories, they conduct interviews to prove a point about a specific feature of Twitter.
This book is long from the very first few pages. I stayed in it for the full length but found myself wanting it to be over each time I started back in.
I recommend this book if you have to write an article, a paper or have a desire to read about Twitter however you might get the same info from Wikipedia.
This book is long from the very first few pages. I stayed in it for the full length but found myself wanting it to be over each time I started back in.
I recommend this book if you have to write an article, a paper or have a desire to read about Twitter however you might get the same info from Wikipedia.
April 28, 2020
My first impression based on the cover: It’s merging with the current Twitter logo and the 2010’s Twitter logo. TBH, I don’t quite like the ‘Twitter’ font and it should be just the same like the ‘A biography’.
The description: My first experience in using Twitter was in 2015, where I’m constantly checking my favorite TV series ‘Oh My English’ tweets. But I don’t quite active at that time, also I know how to use it in such simplicity – liking tweets that I follow and retweeting. This book has 3 core chapters that make Twitter becoming ‘twitterish’ and usability perfect – the @username, the hashtag and the retweets – explaining each of them with four objectives, especially appropriation, incorporation, contestation and iteration. Those objectives were being highlighted by some interviewees with their own archived tweets, people who are working in Twitter Inc. and both of the authors themselves. For me, Twitter itself has a global accessibility, just in a single and fresh tweet in a mere seconds, rather than Facebook or Instagram. Twitter too have a core importance to spread political issues, environmental changes, or a large-scale movement that takes place in somewhere else, including live events that will notify someone to join in like the NBA post-games.
Conclusion: Twitter – it depends on the user himself/herself!
The description: My first experience in using Twitter was in 2015, where I’m constantly checking my favorite TV series ‘Oh My English’ tweets. But I don’t quite active at that time, also I know how to use it in such simplicity – liking tweets that I follow and retweeting. This book has 3 core chapters that make Twitter becoming ‘twitterish’ and usability perfect – the @username, the hashtag and the retweets – explaining each of them with four objectives, especially appropriation, incorporation, contestation and iteration. Those objectives were being highlighted by some interviewees with their own archived tweets, people who are working in Twitter Inc. and both of the authors themselves. For me, Twitter itself has a global accessibility, just in a single and fresh tweet in a mere seconds, rather than Facebook or Instagram. Twitter too have a core importance to spread political issues, environmental changes, or a large-scale movement that takes place in somewhere else, including live events that will notify someone to join in like the NBA post-games.
Conclusion: Twitter – it depends on the user himself/herself!
April 9, 2020
This was better than I thought it was going to be considering it is about Twitter. Thank heavens it isn't about some of its infamous users. It is more about the creation and a few of its popular features, some of which I am not used to or familiar with as a user. I am a part-time user myself because I don't know how to do long posts, so I keep to Facebook and Instagram. Glad this brief.
The author of this book kept pushing the popular features. As a biography about Twitter as one of the main social media platforms, this was so-so and a little flat. More about Twitter's creation could have been discussed. It was still an interesting insight to Twitter but I would still recommend it since most people are on at least one or multiple social media platforms.
Thanks to Netgaley, the author and publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
The author of this book kept pushing the popular features. As a biography about Twitter as one of the main social media platforms, this was so-so and a little flat. More about Twitter's creation could have been discussed. It was still an interesting insight to Twitter but I would still recommend it since most people are on at least one or multiple social media platforms.
Thanks to Netgaley, the author and publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
February 1, 2021
I read this one for class. I guess it works okay as "a new and accessible approach to studying platforms," combining research interviews with intricate details of when people stopped manually typing the words RT vs. MT and so on. It's only 140 pages (ha) and 20 of them are end matter, so it's at least short.
June 29, 2022
Less a biography of the company, and more an anthropological study of the interaction between linguistics, and the crowd-sourced development and dynamic social categorization (“folkonomy”) of twitter’s @, #, and RT features.
January 27, 2023
A little sad reading a Twitter book from 2020 -- a real before times feeling. This is an elegantly written "biography" that finds a nice balance: material is engaging and never dumbed down, but I also never felt lost in the weeds of the technology.
January 27, 2020
A great biography of Twitter, taking us back to the early days of the micro blogging platform. Of particular interest is how user behaviour, and feedback shaped 3 of their biggest features.
Read
March 29, 2021Fascinating, fun, timely, provocative.
May 18, 2021
Please skip. Extremely basic
January 29, 2022
Surprisingly more cohesive than I thought, a great short audio book providing a historic timeline via Twitter's three main features
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews