Maci Bookout and son Bentley from MTV's hit television show Teen Mom
In the past, celebrities weren’t able to communicate with their fans on a personal level, unless they scheduled a meet and greet at some time in their careers. Now however, with the convenience of social networking websites such as Twitter, celebrities are able to connect with fans instantaneously. With the notion of celebrities using Twitter openly to connect with fans from all over the world, identity issues arise in the midst of the countless updates written per day. With more and more celebrities joining the Twitter-bandwagon, the more difficult it becomes to verify with Twitter which accounts are phoney and which accounts are deemed as authentic. For this reason, Twitter implemented their verification checks to celebrities that actually have an account on Twitter and are personally using it. For the celebrities who have had their accounts verified by Twitter such as model, businesswoman, and reality television star Kim Kardashian, millions of fans are able to interact with their favourite celebrities directly and confidently knowing it is actually she. Kim Kardashian accounts for more than 5 million followers and growing on a daily basis.
However, what about those who are just starting out on Twitter and have accounts already made for them? MTV’s Maci Bookout from the show Teen Mom already has the reality of her life broadcasted on television for all of America and Canada to see once a week. Over time, Maci’s popularity on the hit television show has convinced fans to create a number of fake twitter accounts, posing to be Maci Bookout. Although Maci still sees herself as just an ordinary girl, fans have still taken the time to create accounts for her. The fight to win over as many followers as possible has led the creators of the fake accounts into tweeting things like “this is the real maci bookout!! Make sure to follow me” and “okay, this is the last time I am saying this. IF YOU THINK I’M FAKE THEN DELETE ME ALREADY!!!!”. So how do we determine which one is actually real and which ones are bogus when Twitter has not identified the differences of these accounts yet?
Unfortunately, there isn’t a way. Fans have to look through all of the twitter accounts made and hope that one of them will become a verified account. This identity crisis does not just carry on from major celebrities to rising ones, but from the most ordinary people. This example of Maci Bookout just goes to show that although sites like Twitter can be fun and a simple and quick way to connect to many different people all at once, it is not always the most efficient way because we do not always know whom we are talking to.
Aside from the identity issues that arise with Twitter, the website is also used for a number of things. News stories are constantly being told as they are happening on Twitter. For example, the earthquake that occurred in China was being told as it was happening and thus coverage of the story was brought to the world quicker than it ever would have been if Twitter did not exist.
The present state of Twitter in all its glory and popularity only goes to show how much more convenient it will become to all of us and how much of an impact it will create on society in the future. The dependence of Twitter to attain news will come quicker than turning on the television or radio. We will look towards these forms of social media to be informed of all events occurring in the world as they are happening.
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Written by Shelley Luc
From a personal experience, Twitter was the website that was used to confirm the earth quake in the province of Ontario earlier this year. During a school day, peers in my class had mentioned that they felt the ground shaking, while others believed it was nothing. However, as students began checking their social networks it was soon confirmed through Twitter that an earth quake was happening at that very moment and it was felt all the way from the campus we were on at school, to as far away as Ottawa.
ReplyDeleteThe following link from CTV confirms the earth quake earlier this year and uses Twitter for viewers to share where they were during the quake: http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100623/ontario-earthquake-twitter-reaction-100623/20100623?hub=TorontoNewHome