Events tweeted in real time

Twitter has become a facet of everyday life for over 500 million people around the globe over the past several years. One of the ways Twitter has become such a central part of every day life is through a phenomenon known as live tweeting.

Twitter Inc. defines live tweeting as “engaging on Twitter for a continuous period of time- anywhere from 20 minutes to a few hours, with a sequence of focused Tweets. The focus can be a big live event that everybody’s paying attention to like a TV show or an award show, or it can be an event you create yourself.”
Engaging on Twitter means tweeting to your followers in this context. Live tweeting allows an audience to become more engaged in an event by providing them with instant commentary on it. For instance, an 140-character tweet during an NFL game can convey much more meaning to the audience than a diatribe by a sports commentator. Due to the growing popularity of Twitter, many events are now covered by journalists who are responsible for live Tweeting them. On Sept. 12, technology writer Andrea Chang of The Los Angles Times live- Tweeted the release of the iPhone 5, which provided her followers instantly with details about the iPhone 5 instead of forcing them to wait for her to write an article about its release.

Harrison Fregeau, a 1st -semester history major, actively follows and engages in live tweeting. “I follow live tweeting about various sports by some ESPN broadcasters,” Harrison said.

By following these tweets, Harrison is able to stay more engaged with a game than he would be when just watching it. In addition to following live tweets, Harrison also engages in them. On Sept. 9th he live-tweeted the Patriots v. Titans’s game critical plays. One of the aspects that Harrison enjoys about live tweeting is how it allows him to stay connected to his hometown by following live tweeting of his high school football team’s games.

For students wishing to get started in live tweeting, Twitter offers a live tweeting guide on its developer page, and movements.org offers a 13 step live-tweeting guide as well.

Despite being so young, Twitter has managed to play a central role in the way people communicate online. The popularity of the micro blogging site has continued to grow. This growth can be attributed to the unique ways twitter brings people together.