The article “What Twitter’s made of” by Paul Ford talks about how Twitter was conceived and how much it has changed the way people communicate throughout the world. The article looks keenly at twitter as a whole analyzing it in detail from tweets to the technology that runs twitter. It tells us how every tweet once made is designed to stand on its own forever. It talks how each tweet made has the identity of its creator as well as the location and the time it was posted. However, as much as twitter has changed our ways of communication and is the preferred mode of socialization among many, there are several negative characteristics within it that needs to be addressed by the owners to make it better and secure site than it is today.
The Problem
The use of twitter has been on the rise since its inception in the year 2006. However, there are several challenges that are facing it, and they need to be addressed to make the use of twitter better than it is today. The major concern among users of twitter is the privacy of their tweets and who might have access to their personal information without their knowledge. This is a major concern to twitter users as their private information is at risk of being disclosed to third parties especially government agencies. The other major concern is the fact that Twitter Company does not monitor users enough allowing individuals to tweet “possibly sensitive” tweets that might not go down well with other users. They have shifted this burden to the other users who have the mandate to report such tweets if they find them offensive.
The Solution
The use of twitter is still on a high despite these challenges that are facing the users. A solution must be found for such problems as it would go a long way into boosting people’s confidence. The company needs to improve on its technology to ensure personal information of any user is not accessible to any third party without the user’s approval. By doing this they will be safeguarding people rights by ensuring their personal information is safe. The other issue that the company needs to look into is how to ensure “possibly offensive” content does not find its way into the site. This can be done by blocking all sites that might be offensive to other users. They also need to monitor tweets made by users constantly to weed out abusers. This might be a difficult task, but it will make twitter a batter social site than it is currently.
Sustaining the Win
Making these changes will need a lot of time and resources; however, it is the maintenance of such changes that will determine the success of the company. It is also important to investigate whether these changes will be sustainable in the long run before carrying them out. It is here that the company will make a major decision to effect the changes and ensure a better twitter for all.
Conclusion
Twitter is a very important social site to billions of people across the world just like Facebook. The use of twitter has been on the increase since its inception thus showing how much popular it has become. However, as popular as it may be, it still has several challenges that need to be looked into and the challenges named above are just but a few that need to be addressed before it is too late.
