Is Twitter better than Facebook?

Before starting my ALES 204 class I didn’t have a Twitter account and I wasn’t even slightly interested in getting one. But ever since I got one for the class because it was mandatory, I have found so many interesting things on there that helped me gain more knowledge in different areas of life. For example, something that really caught my attention was the number of farmers that use Twitter. Their tweets and pictures helped me become more knowledgeable of where the food I eat comes from and all the hard work that has to be put into the process of making those foods. By following those farmers I also found neat webpages such as Feedstuffs Foodlink that discusses interesting agriculture and food topics. Twitter also helped me find some professionals such as human ecologists who I can follow and keep myself updated on the topics that are being studied by them now.

Twitter is different from Facebook in a way that it is more professional based whereas Facebook is more personal based. Although with that being said, Facebook can be professional based. Because of the popularity of Facebook, many people now have a Facebook page for their business and some even have a page that acts as a resume like fellow classmate Christine L for example. The other unique thing that distinguishes Twitter from Facebook is that you only have a limited number of characters that you can write for your status so everything is to the point whereas on Facebook someone’s status could be a paragraph long.

What I personally like about Twitter is that you can follow anyone to see their status updates and you don’t have to wait for them to authorize anything whereas on Facebook you have to wait for someone to accept your friend request first. This allows me to follow people of my interest such as human ecologists, fashion designers, and textile scientists. Another thing I like is that people can use hash tags in their statuses and that helps to group things together such as in our ALES 204 class. Under that hash tag people can find others who are talking about the same topic.

Although Twitter has so many benefits to it, many people may not find it useful because it doesn’t help one connect with friends and family like Facebook does. Each social network has its advantages and disadvantages and it is up to the person to decide which social network works best for them or if both of them are useful. The bottom line is that Twitter is better from a professional standpoint whereas Facebook is better for personal uses.