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Self retweeting is now possible on Twitter. Will the world be better, or worse, for it? Will it cause any changes at all?
Twitter is now allowing their users to be able to quote their own previous tweets either partially or entirely. While the community has received this with a wide variety of feelings, the feature was enabled as part of Twitter’s timeline changes.
Many users are simply labeling this as yet another step in the downwards spiral of humanity’s descent into the abyss. Others with a more optimistic view on things, meanwhile, have found some potentially useful uses for the feature.
First of all, self retweeting will allow users to claim authenticity with greater ease. If a user tweets something that just ends up being lost in the Twittersphere, it’s fine.
However, if another user tweets something similar (or the exact tweet, word for word, as it is often the case) much later and is given a lot of attention for it, the former user can now self retweet themselves as the latter’s reply.
Similarly, the self retweet can also be used as a “called it” tool for users who make predictions. Nevertheless, self retweeting is not meant to be a tool that helps users prove they were right or that others are wrong, it is intended to be a tool that streamlines and makes the process easier to view on the timeline.
It is also worth noting that a user can only self retweet a tweet once which means that people who really want to give that joke or jab a second try should really plan it for the best possible time.
And while speaking about planning, self retweeting could also be an effective means to fixing current scheduling issues that can occur, especially between continents due to timezones.
The Internet currently seems to see self retweeting as reminiscent of the selfie and of the massive uproar selfies caused before they started to part of today’s society.
It’s doubtful, however, that self retweeting will have the same effects upon the world as selfies did.
Along with self retweeting, Twitter will also be changing how the “@”, the main way of addressing other users, works within the timeline. Muting, blocking, and reporting users will also be a lot more accessible now, another feature which will streamline the content of Twitter’s timeline viewing.
Image Courtesy of Jisc.
