By ALEX CROS and MARY SAYDAH
Staff Writers
The newest social media trend to hit the school is Twitter, leaving many students wondering, to tweet or not to tweet?
Twitter is a website which offers a social networking and microblogging service, enabling its users to send and read messages called ‘tweets,‘ that do not exceed 140 characters. The website launched in 2006, and has since spread worldwide.
Recently, many students and teachers have set up Twitter accounts. A portion of the students were encouraged to make an account by teachers Laura Gesin for Web Design, an elective offered to juniors and seniors, and Andi Mulshine for Advanced Journalism, an elective offered to seniors.
“Twitter is enabling my students to become news aggregators,” Mulshine said. “Our students know about what’s going on in the world, and they can let other people know about it.”
Part of the class’s curriculum includes creating news blogs, and the objective is that students tweet whenever they post a new story on their blog, said Mulshine. Twitter also allows users to gather news that is tailored to their interests, she said.
“If they chose the right news sources to follow, they will get not only general information but specifics according to each person’s interest,” Mulshine said. “If you were a science writer, you could follow sources that can sculpt your stories with a scientific bent.”
Some students are enjoying the website outside of the class. Senior Alex Pettit of Manasquan is a student in the Advanced Journalism class said that he enjoys Twitter and believes the website surpasses Facebook.
“I tweet all sorts of things. Mostly things I find are funny and therefore want to share with the world in the hopes that they find it funny, too,” Pettit said. “Just like random witticisms, funny things that happen to me, and I’ll retweet interesting and humorous things people say.”
Senior Lloyd Burman of Manalapan created an account last year in Gesin’s class and continues using it in Mulshine’s class.
“I tweet about whatever is on my mind at the particular moment I decide to open the app. It can range from how I feel, to school angst, to tweeting at celebrities, to making jokes at people,” Burman said.
“I dislike that you can only use 140 characters,” freshman Emily Forcillo of Manasquan said.
“I don’t have time to get involved in that,” teacher Bill Bengle said.
The e-commerce class, an elective offered to seniors taught by Gesin, created an online marketplace called “Boteega,” this semester. The students involved in the business decided to use Twitter as their primary source for communicating with the public.
“We decided Twitter was the best outlet for us to update our potential customers since “tweets” are short little blurbs where we can convey what we are doing at the moment,” senior and e-commerce student Thom Bell of Atlantic Highlands said. “Twitter also seems to be really increasing in popularity this year and being an online company, we need to stay current.”
The website is also used for entertainment in addition to news gathering and public relations.
“It’s also fun. I follow Snooki from the Jersey Shore, just cause it’s usually funny. If you’re having a tough day, you can open up your twitter feed and have a laugh,” Mulshine said.
“It is incalculable the amount of time I spend on Twitter every day,” Pettit said. “I can constantly look down and check it in a matter of seconds, but Twitter is a savage beast. It consumes many seconds.”
Many students and teachers believe that the website will catch on with the rest of the school eventually.
“I think Twitter is the future,” Mulshine said. “We all need our news in 140 characters or less. It is a perfect fit.