The Great Trending Topic Debate
Posted by Lauren Potgieter on 02 Aug 2010 | Tagged as: Social Media
I never really glance to the right of my screen on Twitter to take a quick look at what Twitters trending topics are as I am much more interested in what articles my peers and influencers are tweeting and I feel that if I want information on Inception or Lindsay Lohan I will look at an online review guide or a gossip column. I must admit, some days when I do glance over at the trending topics, I am baffled that I do not know what some of them are about
Indeed there is a need that is being served by having trending topics and it does reflect on the mantra of giving the public what they want and letting them air their views on world topics, politics and celebrities. (I use these three examples because they seem to stand out the most for me)
Trending topics are great for those who require general news in a short, to the point form and who are not fans of reading entire articles about their favourite celebs or politicians and just wan snippet information. But twitters trending topics cannot be used as a news source or a search engine as trends like the Justin Bieber phenomenon show that topic and people that not always featured in the news can be featured on Twitters trending topics.
Justin Bieber is one of the most controversial trending topics owing to the fact that he was trending “too much” Twitter then updated its algorithm and all of a sudden, Justin Bieber was no longer. But then popped up Dustin Jieber and other variations showing that no matter how much Twitter tries to control trending topics, celebrities like Justin Bieber or Jeeber or Dieber will win.
Some feel that Twitter’s trending topics need to be more elite and that not every second issue that is slightly popular finds itself on the trending topics list. Twitters trending topics are not really world opinion owing to factors such as time zone as what is trending in the beginning in the day is highly influenced by a certain part of the world and what is trending at the end of the day will have other influences.
Many feel that the trending topics are no longer relevant on Twitter, but isn’t it the public that makes topics relevant? Topics are only popular if the masses are talking about them, and how many twitter trending topics pop up at your dinner table every night?
