It was over a decade ago that the first tweet was ever sent and now over ten years later there are more than 500 million tweets posted every 24 hours.

In our social media age, Twitter has become one of the fastest growing social media platforms among Millennials and teenagers, which is why we are dedicating this week’s social media post to Twitter where we will highlight the pros and cons to using this app.

What is Twitter

Twitter is a social media platform where the user “tweets” out a message to their followers using only 140 characters. These tweets are often words of wisdom, current events, thought leadership, or just a general “knee jerk” reaction to a situation.

Pros:

  1. Twitter is probably the easiest social media platform that exists. Literally all you do is tweet 140 characters of thoughts and wisdom or rants and rage. There is not special trick to it. Just tweet.
  2. It is easy to stay up to date on current events and news. Because tweets are so easy to write this is one of the best platforms that journalists as well as citizens report news and current events occurring in their location.
  3. It is easy to get behind the scenes. Celebrities use Twitter as a way of showing their personal life making you feel more connected to them. Go and follow any celbrity account and you will get an idea of what I mean.
  4. The 140 character limit. People don’t usually rant for too long.
  5. Thought leadership is easy to find. If you want to feel like you are learning from the best brains in the world then go follow them on Twitter. People like Warren Buffet or Elon Musk.
  6. Generally cleaner than other social media platforms regarding pictures and videos.

Cons:

  1. Although Twitter tries to monitor them, there are a ton of fake profiles. Meaning, you might follow someone claiming to be Angelina Jolie and is instead some creep who you don’t know.
  2. Like any social media account it is extremely addictive. Often users find themselves scrolling through pages and pages of tweets when they get bored just to kill time.
  3. Celebrity mud slinging is one of the most annoying things that exists on Twitter. Twitter is starting to become a platform where celebrities and political parties just make fun, ridicule, and blame.
  4. Internet rats are all over Twitter. When I say internet rats, I am talking about internet trolls. People who go online just to comment, make fun of, and argue online because they have nothing better to do.
  5. Once you tweet, it is there for good. Twitter is an easy place for employers, colleagues, employees, friends, family, peers, and whoever to see what you post. If you wouldn’t say it to their face then don’t tweet it, because when you do it is there forever and easily accessible for anyone to find even if you delete it.

Social media isn’t going anywhere and teenagers are exposed to it everyday. Twitter is a great account for teenagers to get daily wisdom from thought leaders and friends, but if abused can easily become a black hole for time. We continually recommend educating teens regarding social media and its implications before they begin using each specific platform. Twitter is a great place to start.