Academics are launching a study this week to understand what aspects of Twitter content are considered valuable, and how that impacts presentation and perception of online identity
Responding to the widespread perception that the majority of Twitter updates are boring, inane, or largely sandwich-related, researchers from the University of Southampton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Georgia Institute of Technology are calling for tweeters (Twitter users) to anonymously rate their friends' tweets.
The study aims at exploring the question- “Who gives a tweet?”
According to the researchers, people often reach for the microblogging website when they have just had a great breakfast, updated their blog, feel exhausted, or want to share a news article.
André, graduate student at the University of Southampton’s School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) department, said: "Social networking sites currently take an optimistically positive view of status updates.
“Facebook enables users to 'like' their friends’ updates, and Twitter has 'favourites'. But this ignores the value that could be gained from understanding which updates are disliked and why."
The researchers have launched the website
WGATweet.com (Who Gives A Tweet), and are asking Twitter users to sign up and receive ratings from both followers and strangers.
Kurt Luther, graduate student at Georgia Institute of Technology, said: "The site allows us to gather a more nuanced type of feedback than is currently available, and offers users an insight into how their updates are perceived by different groups, helping them understand what their impact really is."
Michael Bernstein, PhD student at MIT, said: "Analysing the negatively rated tweets, and the consensus that forms around them, will help us understand the emerging approved or accepted norms in these new forms of online communication."
Twitter users can sign up for free rating and analysis of their tweets on the WGATweet website.
This research is part of Paul André's doctoral research in examining how to get more value both into and out of social media, towards enhancing personal and social awareness. Paul André is a member of the Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia research group in Southampton university’s ECS.