Alan Carr’s Tweets - analysis
Twitter is used to post comments and photos. It is very
popular with celebrities who often use it to communicate with their fans. It
limits the user in many ways compared to verbal interaction. One of its limitations
is the maximum of 140 characters per post or ‘tweet.’ This means that the user does
not often use the correct punctuation or sometimes none at all. An example of
this is in TV presenter and comedian Alan Carr’s tweets. For instance, he says,
‘that’s Graham Nortons show you wally’ and ‘last nights show.’
The 140 characters maximum also results in abbreviations – for example, ‘what a
ledge’ and ‘Well jell’ – so they can fit in all the words that they want to
say. Alan Carr also uses hash tags which is popular tool on Twitter and also
acts as an abbreviation. For example, in one of his tweets Alan uses, ‘#priorities,’
which has replaced a sentence along the lines of, ‘get your priorities right.’
The user is unable to show feelings and emotion in the same
way as they would be able to if they interacting with a person face-to-face.
Therefore, the user has to try harder in communicating with the readers and other
tools must be used instead. An example of this is emoticons which are used to
replace what would usually be a facial expression. Alan uses the emoticon ‘;)’
which represents a winking facial expression. It also establishes the tone of
the tweet as well. It is used on the end of the tweet, ‘go on then – you win,’
which, arguably, could be seen as quite blunt but with the winking emoticon at
the end the reader then knows that the tweet was intended to have a cheeky tone
to it. Another example of the demonstration of emotion on Twitter is Alan Carr’s
occasional use of exclamation marks. The number of exclamation marks used
should indicate how excited the user would be when verbally saying the word or sentence.
For instance, Alan Carr tweets, ‘What a ledge!!,’ which would be said with a
little enthusiasm whereas the excessive use of exclamation marks in, ‘welcome
home to you too!!!!’ would be said used to indicate a lot of enthusiasm.
The tweets are an asynchronous discussion with the user’s
readers so the user has to go to other efforts to ensure that the tweets are consumed
in the way that they want them to be consumed. For example, Alan Carr uses
ellipsis to indicate a pause, ‘...must be Saturday.’ Affection is also
difficult to demonstrate on Twitter so, as Alan Carr seems to use often, the
user uses kisses instead. These are shown as ‘xxx’ and an example of this is
Alan Carr’s tweet, ‘will do. Thank you.’
Tweets
Fiiiiiiiiiiggghhhhhtttttt!!! RT @LuvUAlunaGeorge: @AlanCarr @lauramvula Alan! She's coming round
mine already!! Shoo Xx
What a ledge!! Well jel. RT @LeonMoran86: @AlanCarr @chattyman Look who I bumped into pic.twitter.com/twRvClYgdS
Hi @AlanCarr this limited edition print
has been a big favourite @WimbledonArt Open Studios! Open all
Wend! pic.twitter.com/t3DambNkZh
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