Facebook Vs Twitter

One of the most sought-after human inventions has been the social networking sites. Facebook and Twitter, among them, have been at the top of the ladder for the past 5-6 years. Some people spend hours using them, while some just spend their leisure. But the demand or the publicity has been no less regardless of the usage. Some have even started using them professionally. But are there any differences between the two? If yes, what actually are they? Which one wins the battle for the best social network? Although it seems both tantamount to each other, but it is not! Let us first peek into the history of the both.

Facebook- It was launched by Mark Zuckerberg along with his friends in February 2005. Though initially started for the students of Harvard, gradually it went on to reach the students of Boston, Ivy League colleges and Stanford. It was available to the whole world from September 2006. It went public on May 17^th 2012 and was valued at $104 billion.

Twitter- It was founded by Jack Dorsey on March 21^st 2006 and launched on July 5^th 2006. Though was not a big hit initially, but started to expand its reach from 2009 with 2 million tweets a day in Jan 2009, 32 million tweets a day in Jan 2010, 200 million tweets a day in July 2011 and so on.

The main idea of Facebook has been “Connection”. It helps user to stay connected, reconnect with individuals whom they know offline, whereas twitter allows you to follow people regardless of knowing each other. The first and foremost attribute which we can think of, to choose between the two, is the usage.

In Facebook, we can create our personal profile, connect to people we know or we intend to know, have the facility of instant messaging (replacing the age old yahoo messenger and Google talk), post on walls, upload pictures, videos, share links etc. and also play games.

In twitter we are restricted to 140 characters messaging, but can follow anyone, get updates about celebrities, connect to people with same interests, share links, and send Direct Message.

But Facebook has always been flexible, user friendly, versatile and interesting compared to twitter which is mainly- text, text and text! In twitter profile creation, viewing accounts are easier than Facebook. You can tweet within few minutes of creating a profile. But again, Facebook needs building up friends, refine your profile etc.

Facebook has been passive and twitter- active in the form of communication. Twitter uses a hash-tag and 140 characters which were used to give a social form to SMS text, before smartphones went viral. The good thing is, it forces user to be concise yet crisp.  Hash-tags help to categorize the group we want to connect to. Where internet was restricted, people could use tweet via text or “call to tweet”.

But Facebook still has been a winner in user involvement. It boasts its 1.23 billion users as compared to twitter with 232 million users. It has certainly more relaxations for its users. For example, creating an event page or company page, compared to twitter, has been on the easier side for Facebook. It has also included hash-tags last year. One very less known fact about Facebook is the FBML (Facebook Markup Language). It enables us to create new tabs, fully unique content. Though there are some restrictions on the code, but possibilities are endless. Another interesting thing is that you can connect your blog feed to your profile which means every time you blogpost, it will automatically be shared. It saves time and helps to spread more awareness.

Privacy, which has been of paramount importance to the users, also declares Facebook as the winner. The reason is obvious. In Facebook an approval is needed to connect to the person you intend to know, whereas twitter has been more public- just follow without an approval.

Twitter is widely used as real time news service. Raw and unfiltered news can be seen on twitter, and even we get to look on to the daily lives of celebrities where the interaction is more direct than Facebook.

On professional grounds, Facebook’s mobile effort has been on the slower side as compared to that of twitter. In September 2013, Twitter had 65% of its ad revenue from mobile to that of 0% for Facebook in 2012. But Facebook is trying to recover its lost ground in mobile. A good attempt has been in acquiring Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger’s Instagram and Jann Koum’s Whatsapp.

According to a Huffington Post- “Facebook’s most common use is to keep people informed about what’s happening. It is becoming a scrapbooking site, where people archive important moments in life. Twitter focuses on speeding things up, often becoming a source in and of itself.”

For most of us Facebook, or the Digital Glue, wins the battle for social attention, whereas in information and idea zone, it is twitter at the top. Facebook is a 2-way connection compared to twitter which is much of a 1-way connection, if they don’t follow you back. To me, it seems Facebook is becoming competent with many things but not outstanding in any particular one. But for now, it still remains our most influential friend.  

Sources:

• www.mediabistro.com
• www.infotoday.com
• www.diffen.com

Payanam Chennai!!!

I am not an avid traveler, but I have always liked the concept of travelling! Not much experiences also. Strange it may seem, but the last time I went beyond West Bengal was in class 2. And the place was Puri - a not very unfamiliar place for all. But last week I've had the chance to visit Chennai. Primarily it wasn't a tour. My family had doctor’s appointment at the Apollo Hospital. But somewhere in my mind, I had plans to explore places, as many as possible within the scheduled time.  

We boarded Coromandal Express and started off on 7^th at 2.45pm. The train had to traverse a total distance of 1662 km in 27 hours. Sadly my smartphone was jinxed, so I had carried my roommate’s laptop to amuse me. I booked an upper berth for myself, went up and was all set to enjoy the journey.

Reached the Chennai Central Station the next day at around 6 pm. Finding a hotel was quite tiresome as it had to be near the hospital. First we found, Hotel Ammu Palace. It looked decent from outside but was just the opposite from inside. Finally we came across Royal Home. It was just 10 minutes walking distance from the Apollo. The place was known as Thousand Lights.  The rooms were pretty decent, but unfortunately they had only one room left, that too at the ground floor. But after a long journey, no one was enthusiastic to find out better options and finally locked it. The next day, I had to be with everyone at the hospital. But from the second day, I started off as a lone traveler for the rest of the days.

It was Thursday and I began with MGR Memorial.  It is built on Marina Beach in memory of former chief minister of Chennai, M.G.Ramachandran. It was kind of the Victoria Memorial of Kolkata. There were couples here and there. The place had many beautiful columns and structures built all around.  The entrance had a structure of two leaves and a horse, commonly called the Pegasus. The University of Madras was just nearby. It was a nice view overall with pleasant breeze from across the sea. Alongside was the Marina Beach. The beach experience wasn't much exciting as I was alone and the stench of dead fishes all around added to it. Took a few photographs. Don’t expect wonders as they were by a point and shoot camera.

The next venture was the National Park at Guindy. The only thing that pissed me was the auto fare. Very less number of share-auto were available. And the reserved ones charged as much as Rs 40 just for only a km. So decided to board the bus from Thousand Lights to Guindy. The distance was about 15 km. On the way, saw Vivekananda Home and the CSI Church. Reached Guindy National Park after around half an hour.  It had two parks inside it. One Zoological Park and a Snake Park.  I availed the entry tickets and went in to the zoological park.  The park is basically a children’s park. It had quite a lot of varieties in the animals it kept. Those included wild dogs, antelopes, owls, peacock, pelicans etc. Spent almost an hour and a half over there, came out and went on for the Snake Park. Although haven’t visited much of a kind, but it was a thrill to see the snakes and crocodiles.  

The place for the penultimate day was the Fort Museum at Egmore. It remains closed on Friday, so had to go on Saturday. The entry ticket for a person was Rs.15 and person with a camera was 200 more. -_- But still the urge took me in.  Just near the entrance was the Victoria Memorial Hall. It had in it the National Art Gallery. The gallery consisted of beautiful and original paintings and sculptures from the early 1900’s. They were mainly Tanjore Paintings and Ravi Verma Paintings. It also had the models and few original pieces of the first telephone, typewriter, printing machine, etc. The adjacent building was the Government Museum. It had South and North Indian sculptures, Indus Valley civilization gallery, Amravati sculptures and many more.  The bronze gallery was bliss to watch. As the name suggests, it had idols, ornaments, musical instruments etc. made of bronze from the prehistoric times. For the first time, learning history was so much fun and engaging. :P Anyway I had almost finished exploring the place. Wanted to see a performance at the museum theater, but it was closed for renovation.  On the way back home went to the Express Avenue Mall and did some petty shopping for myself.  

Finally the trip was about to end. Though for a small duration, but I still enjoyed my lone traveler mode for the first time. And it definitely has instilled in me, an urge to travel more of such places. Wish, the next time I go out, I have a travel partner alongside me.