In Eric Langhorst's blog Speaking of History, his most recent post, Watching The Curiosity Rover Landing With Friends On Twitter is about his experience with Twitter the night of the Rover landing. On the night of November 5th NASA's rover Curiosity touched down on Mars as countless people watched in wonder. In his post Langhorst describes how he watched his Twitter feed blow up with tweets about the rover landing. People were using the hashtag #NASAsocial and sharing everything including links to videos and website about the rover. Langhorst says that the experience was like "watching it with a group of friends at a local bar" and describes it as being both fun and educational.
Langhorst discusses how not everyone "gets" Twitter and includes his own father in this. He thinks that it is okay that not everyone gets it because it would likely become a less productive tool if everyone did. I agree with him. I did not have a Twitter until I started this class and I honestly never intended to have one. I didn't see the point because I already had Facebook. Once I started to actively use my Twitter account on a regular basis, I understood the appeal.
In my comment I shared how I feel that Twitter is the superior social media forum right now because Facebook has been "dumbed down" so much. When I say this, I don't mean that Facebook users are dumb (I still have my Facebook). But it is obvious to anyone that has had Facebook since the beginning, that the sight has become much more "user friendly." Perhaps too user friendly. I have heard many people say that it has simply gone the way of Myspace. Anyone who was previously a Myspace user will understand what I mean. When Facebook first went public, it was confusing. It was much more complicated to use and not very many people had an account. Now, Twitter has replaced that. While Twitter is hugely popular, it is still confusing and undesirable to many people.
Langhorst says in his post that a follower of his tweeted about how, during the landing, his Facebook feed was silent. He describes it as "crickets" while his Twitter feed was "a party." Mr Langhorst believes that Twitter (at least for now) is something different and that we are using this sharing tool in a much better way. I agree with him. Mr Langhorst and all of his friends experienced a piece of history together that night.
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