Lucy Tobin: How Twitter has given power to the masses

Whether Twitter is really worth $33 billion remains to be seen. But what is clear now is that it has changed our world. And for its users, it cannot be overvalued
Timeline changes: Twitter confirmed the new policy in a statement
8 November 2013
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We're forever growing bubbles. Usually it’s the housing market that’s the cause of dinner-party concern — will that West Hampstead pad uphold the indigestion-giving price Dan paid for it last month? — but this week it’s Twitter’s value rising faster than the Shard’s lift that’s seen it labelled as a burstable trend.

“We’re in bubble territory!” declared someone who had been through the site’s books. “We’re back to 1999,” screamed another headline warning about Twitter’s $33 billion valuation as it opened trading yesterday.

It may come to be. Twitter might have changed our world but that doesn’t mean the world owes it a living. Doubts continue over its ability to turn tweets into cash, although it’s true too that Twitter still has no competition in the microblogging space. Louise Mensch’s Menshn.com competitor tried, flailed and died: we don’t Menshn but we do still Tweet — a collective 500 million times a day.

Twitter’s founders didn’t invent just a website but a new form of communication. When “to tweet” entered the Oxford English Dictionary this year, compilers admitted: “This breaks at least one OED rule, namely that a new word needs to be current for 10 years before consideration for inclusion. But it seems to be catching on.”

Ah, the understatement of the dictionary-compiler. Twitter has indeed caught on. And it joins a tiny group of companies named in OED definitions. Apple and Microsoft are in there with “operating system”, and Google has its own eponymous verb.

Yet it’s not just our language that’s been amplified by Twitter. Chief executives who wouldn’t know a re-tweet from a bird call giggle with excitement over being talked about on Twitter. Some seem more interested in the “Twitter reaction” than the share price — the one that determines their bonuses.

Meanwhile, the openness of Twitter has made it much harder for individuals and corporations to bully people — such as Paperchase being accused of stealing an artist’s designs — and tougher for companies to ignore little people’s views. Forcing an incompetent train operator to tell you why the 09.56 is delayed at least makes you feel better too.

Twitter has given the people a currency of power that millions now relish. Indeed, those who still whinge about Twitter are inevitably those who don’t use it. “Can’t tweet, won’t tweet, it’s stupid,” moaned one opponent — on Facebook, that mere address book with boasts attached. Twitter is what you make of it. Someone interested in nuclear physics could learn from following others’ high-level tweeting on exotic nuclei; someone who loves EastEnders might enjoy the “collective conversation” when it’s on.

Twitter is a self-curated source of breaking news, a convenient mode of disseminating information and an endless conversation from around the world that you can view, conveniently, from your bed. Or the loo.

You may just be too busy for more streams of noisy opinions and news — a valid reason to ignore Twitter. But proclaiming the site is pointless or stupid? That’s closed-minded.

Whether Twitter is really worth $33 billion remains to be seen. But what is clear now is that it has changed our world. And for its users, it cannot be overvalued.

@lucytobin

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