After four years of exponential growth and media coverage, some still have their doubts about the purpose of Twitter. Why is it different from Facebook status updates? Who cares what I had for breakfast? Why would I want to know Oprah’s favorite pizza toppings?

Most of these questions will forever remain unanswered, but there is one question about Twitter that I do have the answer to: How is it useful?

Crisis Communication

Twitter finds its calling in emergency situations.

When crises occur, people on the front lines transform into reporters with the use of Twitter.

During the Sept. 28, 2010 shooting at the campus of University of Texas at Austin, students and administration used Twitter to alert other students and even law enforcement about the location of the gunman. Topics such as “Lockdown” and “Gunman” were trending topics on the mircoblogging site that helped outsiders – including mainstream media such as CNN – get details about the event.

Future of the Tweet

Twitter’s usefulness in emergencies gives us a preview of how the site will advance. Twitter is valuable in its collectivism, not its individualism. The instantaneous and widespread flow of information between all its users is how Twitter will solidify itself as a fixture of communication.

Until more people realize this, we are stuck with daily wisdom from Ashton Kutcher, Lady Gaga and Shaq.

About Me:

My name is Danny Christopher. I’m a senior technical journalism major with a concentration in public relations.

I am the social media intern for CSU, which is an exciting field to be in because of the largely unknown social media landscape. I have just one problem with working on social media: If most college students retreat to Facebook when they need a break from whatever they’re working on, how do I take a break if what I’m working on is Facebook?