I was originally quite opposed to the idea of constantly posting my “goings on” anywhere online. I was always lazy with AIM away messages, and never ever updated my status on Facebook. Hell, for that matter I hardly told actual classmates what I was up to if I left my design studio, unless I was making a run for coffee. So earlier this summer when I became “Twitterpated” so to speak, I decided I needed a really good reason to do so other than that the creative industry “wanted” me to, or thinks it’s the hip new trend.
I have broken down my Twitter usage to three basic components:
1. Instant News
2. So my family and friends know the ins and out of my routine
3. To feel less isolated in a city of 8 million people
Think what you will of reasons 2 & 3, what fascinates me the most is the ability to be constantly updated on events happening around me, as offered up not only by news agencies, but by citizens posting first-hand accounts of events they witness. Twitter has inadvertently developed a platform for vigilantly news reporting that in many ways provides better headlines than those delivered by major conglomerates.
I am an information addict, my homepage is the New York Times and I start every day by navigating directly to Google Reader. Forget the fancy design systems of blogs and websites, all of my news starts out in black text with blue headings. This obviously conflicts with my profession as a designer, however, in cases where I just need to know objectively what is going on outside, I want information delivered, not sold to me, and this text-only structure has proven to be the best design.
Information selling vs. information delivery is what I believe will define the future of news media and social networking. In a world where news has become arguably “free” I don’t want to be immediately bothered by advertisements or have information ordered in someone else’s opinion of importance. On the first skim I want sentences, arranged by when they broke or in an order I have previously determined. Then, if my interest is piqued, I’ll opt in for some legitimate journalism. Herein lies the x-factor to the Twitter news debate: quality. No one would argue that the average individual pales in comparison to NYT’s army of reporters. But in my simplified scheme of info-feeding, those reporters are the salesman trying to close the deal on a car that I test-drove already…because my friend has one. I could try out the product without even stepping foot in the dealership. In a world where news is “happening all around us” do we really need to wait for professionals to come give play by play? Shouldn’t their job focus more on later finding the facts surrounding the event that was reported?
Twitter offers a speedy alternative to waiting for headlines to break. When I watched Obama fly into New York via Helicopter, I was furiously typing into my iPhone’s Twitter app that I saw Marine One, while simultaneously searching Twitter for why the President was in New York. For kicks I googled the same question and found no hits. It wasn’t until hours later that the news reported he was in town for the NAACP.
So what will this mean for the main-stream news? Likely nothing, other than further issues with financing their operations. For in-depth coverage they are still the de-facto source, and human interest pieces are often an unanticipated surprise after reading the headlines. I do predict, however, that the visual means by which we experience news will evolve to mirror somewhat what I described above. Thanks to mobile devices with small screens yet superb graphic capabilities, we will soon see greater experiments with organizing large amounts of content so that it can be quickly viewed and accessed. From a designer’s perspective it is an infinite playground to test grids and typography. Happy info gathering!
