Getting Hooked: Motivations, Evaluation, and Usage of Twitter.com

Twitter is a new social medium that focused on the idea of what is happening now, offering simple features, yet equally satisfying as other complicated social network sites. Utilizing Uses and Gratifications Approach and Social Construction of Technology, the researcher explored the usage of Twitter.com among Metro Manila university students. Through online and face-to-face surveys, supported by online interviews, the researcher established the motivations, evaluation, and general usage of the site. It can be said that the social media experience that Twitter gave was the interrelationship of these concepts. Boyd and Ellison (2007) laid out the definition of social network site (SNS), but this definition suggested a passive use of SNS. Users were well immersed into SNS. To attain full experience of SNS, particularly Twitter, the user must fulfill four factors: creating a profile; forming a list of contacts; viewing, traversing and interacting with this list of contacts; and updating profile frequently. With this, the users’ motivations, evaluation and usage of SNS will merge to being a worthwhile social media experience.