how twitter helps grow popular culture
- a thread

(citations at the end)

We all like twt right? I mean why else wld we be here if we didn’t. I think it’s safe to say twt has helped us discover a lot of new things. It just takes the press of a button for smth to end up on ur tl. And once a large community starts to like smth it becomes popular culture.

Kpop is a part of pop culture. How do u think it came to be here? Because of us. Because of the fans. By spreading images, clips, memes, fan cams, TWEETS. Twt does have its downsides, it’s a place where a lot of bullying and hate speech can be spread.

But we can’t deny that it has also done a lot for our society today. The ability to communicate, spread information, and build community shows that Twitter helps grow popular culture. I’ll be using this thread as a continuous example.

First off, twt allows for ideas to be shared in a simple format. U just have to click on the compose button or section. And then write WHATEVER u want. Although there is a word limit there is a use of certain abbreviations.

Such as bc, r , u, hru, wdym, tl, such u’ve seen throughout the thread so far and will continue to see. I think it’s safe to argue that this has definitely caused a decline in literacy but it does aid in the spread of mass media.

The faster we can produce our thoughts and ideas the faster we can communicate with others and share more ideas and meet new ppl with common interests. And u don’t necessarily need followers to have ur tweets seen. Ppl can find ur tweets with certain keywords.

e.g, if someone wants to learn about popular culture, they can easily find it by searching in the explore bar the words “popular culture” or “pop culture” and suddenly they’ll have a bunch of tweets mentioning these words. This brings me to my next point,

Twt is a great way to spread information. Ie. this thread, if u want to know about pop culture or twt this thread is perfect for that. I’m literally informing u as to why twitter supports popular culture and ur learning from it from TWITTER. We really do come full circle.

Marshall McLuhan wld find that this is exactly what “the medium is the message” (McLuhan, page 1) wld entail; it's not even what I’m saying that matters but the medium I am using. TWITTER!

Anyways, twt is a great format for spreading information. I mean the whole internet knew about that fly on the VP's head* thanks to twt.

Although ppl who were watching the election wld’ve noticed the fly, ppl (like me) who weren’t watching wldn’t have known but thanks to twt I find out due to the mass sharing of such a thing.

Another good example of this would be @prodyeongyu’s thread on why Hyuka is sus in the +U**. No one or very few people thought Hyuka was sus, but because of her thread and the information, she spread more people are starting to see it. And this thread BLEW UP.

At the time that I am writing this, it has 2.5K likes and 597 rts (not counting the qrts). Because Mia chose to use her twt platform to spread her ideas (and others) the message got spread quite fast and at a large range.

Although with the spread of information also comes with the spread of misinformation. But even the ppl who r wrong get to have a place to spread their thoughts e.g. Flat earthers <3.

Although we all like to make fun of them, they do have their own little “Flat Earth Society” *** u could almost say it’s a community

My final point, twt helps build community. Because of our easy access to spread information or just express our thoughts, it is very easy for like-minded people to find eo and tweet amongst themselves.

They can easily start following one another and build their own little community. E.g. again, this thread. Ppl who r interested in pop culture could totally find eo here, and I could totally discuss this topic with people who would like to and i could join the McLuhan fan club.

Or maybe if ur like this person u’ll choose against it idk. https://twitter.com/omona/status/825015084627980288?s=20

We also see multiple people who have accounts simply set on getting ppl to follow ppl with similar interests. E.g. the moa mutual accounts.****

They aid ppl to gain followers with similar interests and help grow their platforms and help build a community and communication, which plays a direct role in helping spread pop culture.

So all this to say, twt has had an immense impact on the growth of popular culture.

Through its ability to enhance communication on the internet, the spread of information on different topics using a single platform, and building communities, twitter has played a large role in mass media, one of the many building blocks for influencing popular culture (Delaney).

works cited

McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. McGraw-Hill Education, 1964.

Delaney, Tim. “Pop Culture: An Overview.” Philosophy Now, 2007, https://philosophynow.org/issues/64/Pop_Culture_An_Overview. Accessed 3 October 2020.

tweets cited

* https://twitter.com/i/events/1314031144153698308?s=20
** https://twitter.com/prodyeongyu/status/1315364923266928640?s=20
*** https://twitter.com/FlatEarthOrg 
**** https://twitter.com/txt_mutuals?s=20

Abbreviations:
Qrt: quote retweet
Rt: retweet
Twt: twitter
Ppl: people
Eo: each other
Ur: your
U: you
R: are
E.g: example
Wld: would
+U: tomorrow x together Universe

fin