Facebook VS. Twitter: A Comparative Analysis

Twitter vs. Facebook

In 2016, it is normal for the average person have accounts on many different social media platforms. Some social medias are used for photos, videos, connecting with family, business, etc. However, when it comes to Twitter and Facebook, people have a hard time finding differences between the two and ultimately feel the need to just use one or the other. Facebook and Twitter are similar in many ways. Though, there are unique features that separate the two. Through assessing character limit, simplicity, privacy settings, credibility, and specific features, choosing between these will boil down to your personal preferences.

First let's start with Twitter. Twitter is known for their 140 character limit. This may seem appealing to some, but not to others. With a limit, it is more difficult to fully express your idea. However, it does improve creativity and people who like challenges would enjoy this feature. This leads into the overall simplicity of the website. Twitter has a lot of terms and features that the avid Facebook user will not be familiar with.

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Next is privacy settings. To sum it up, Twitter is a way to talk to strangers about similar interests. It is not necessary that people communicating on Twitter know each other. One thing that upsets users is that Twitter has only two options of privacy settings. You can only set as private (where no one sees your posts besides you), or public (where everyone on the internet sees your posts). As for credibility, Twitter has been open to the public since 2006, which is quite a long time.

Twitter also owns the social network Vine. This shows that not only can the creators make one successful social media, but two. Also, Twitter has gained a lot of popularity in the media. T.V. shows would use twitter to connect with the viewers, and celebrities use it to talk to fans. Since big corporations and big names in Hollywood use Twitter, the general public feels comfortable using it as well. Next is all of the great features. Some will say that twitter is growing to be the biggest online news source. That is because of Twitter’s realtime posting. People post about things the moment it happens. Rather than watching the news, teens and young adults often go to Twitter for their news. Also, Twitter is famous for its following feature. Followers are people who subscribe to your posts in a way. However, a user may become obsessed with their follower count and completely forget the real use of the website.

As for Facebook, there is no character limit. This makes it much easier for a person to say what they fully had to say without abbreviating or condensing their ideas into 140 characters. This may appeal to young adults to older adults. Unlike Twitter, Facebook is fairly simple to use. There aren’t a lot of confusing terms and the website design is very clear. Next is privacy settings. Facebook’s main use is to keep track of friends and keep sharing, and this is in line with the fact that it when it was started it was meant for Harvard students only but it extended to other users. One privacy measure that is on Facebook is that you know the person you add as your friend. Facebook has a variety of privacy settings and you can choose who sees what on your account. Let’s talk about credibility, Facebook was created in 2003 and launched to the public in 2004. Therefore, this social network has been around for a long time. This fact may give users a sense of comfort since it has been well established. Facebook does in fact own many social networks, however the creators did not create them. They simply bought Instagram, Whatsapp, and Snapchat because they had the money to. Facebook’s great features is the sharing feature. It is easy to see a post and share it to family members or friends. For example, if your family organized and planned a family reunion, the share feature makes it easy to get the information to everyone invited. Unlike Twitter, Facebook does not have followers. Instead, it has friends. There is generally no competition on how many friends a user has, which makes it totally different from Twitter in this aspect.

Despite all of their differences, Facebook and Twitter are alike in many ways. Both are free public social networks that are accessible on the world wide web (whether it is on a mobile device or computer), they allow you to express your ideas (just in different ways), share content, media, and news stories, and they also are both very credible in their own way. They also own well known social networks such as Vine, Instagram, Whatsapp, and Snapchat. To add, they also both have advertisements on their websites which might be a con to some people (though advertisements make the website free).

In conclusion, Twitter has a lot in common with Facebook, and vice-versa. Though they have differences such as the character limit, privacy settings, simplicity, credibility, and specific features, they also have things that are alike such that they are both free, they allow you to connect with people. Choosing between the two will come down to personal preferences. If you are someone who wants to see and connect with friends and family, Facebook sounds like a good choice. To contrast, if you are someone who wants to keep up with real time news and communicate with complete strangers about similar interests, Twitter will be a good option. Though, nothing is set in stone, you have the liberty to use whichever you want. Why not use both?