Culture

Tech : Twitter, Barbie have one thing in common: accessories

Our RAM is bigger than yours

When Twitter jumped into the technology scene in 2006, it introduced the concept of microblogging (blogging within a constrained format) to a global community. When Mattel birthed Barbie into the toy scene in 1959, it introduced a plastic standard representative of the idealistic expectations of that generation’s society to a mostly white middle-class demographic.

So what do the two have in common? Accessories.

Both Barbie and Twitter have garnered flocks of fanatics who could not be appeased without all of the flashy, functional, fabulous toppings that were made to enhance the original experience.

As these Twitter accessories have been willed into creation and matured significantly over the past five years, they’ve become more relevant. These accessories are now taking on a crucial role as tweeting fills more roles worldwide.

While Twitter’s accessories are coded applications and not tiny plastic purses, the same concept is applicable. Twitter’s ultra fans have found or created ways to spice up their accounts just as I modified my Barbie. (Pierced ears, blue hair and the Barbie Jeep. To each her own, right?)



Let’s start with the big kahuna: Ken. Ken to Barbie was a status symbol, a completion of something not quite whole on its own, created for the sake of competition and appearances. While Twitter is infinitely asexual as far as I can tell, it too has its Ken. Or rather, several Kens.

Klout. TweetReach. Twitter Grader. I could keep going, except running through the list would eat up my word count.

Each of the aforementioned is a service that takes either a Twitter name or phrase and measures its influence on the Web. Each employs different metrics, analytical methods and standards. Effectively, each will assert that you have a different score, influence or reach.

Curious as to how your Twitter handle compares to that of Charlie Sheen? Klout will measure your influence and tell you where you stand on the global tweet scale. Want to see how far and wide a hashtag you originated travels? TweetReach can do just that.

In keeping with society’s mid-1900s standards, Ken was supposed to bring home the bacon. Well, these influence-measuring tools for Twitter are used nowadays to assess account influence so that companies can sponsor them — aka, they’re used to monetize accounts and, in a sense, effectively modernize the way in which the bacon is making its way home. Hence Ken = Twitter metrics.

And that leads us to the vanity accessories. Barbie’s wardrobe was a source of commotion in toy stores for decades. Dress, hat, purse, shoes — if Barbie wasn’t looking fly, you weren’t invited to play kickball with the cool kids during recess.

By Twitterverse standards, this equates to a very important yet frequently overlooked modification: profile picture.

Not in the name of Chancellor Nancy Cantor could Barbie be left in her original clothes and be deemed acceptable. Today no self-respecting tweeter would dare leave his or her profile picture as is with the abominable egg. A picture of the tweeter or something relevant to the tweeter is expected at the lowest standard. People who want to get fancy can endorse an organization or good cause with an icon embellished over their picture; that’s Barbie ball gown status (disclaimer for boys — this means ‘very fancy’).

And last but not least, for the Barbie on vacation (also known as the lazy tweeter), there are services to take tweeting essentially out of your hands.

My personal favorite is the That Can Be My Next Tweet website, which generates new tweets using your tweet history.

Note to reader: This service is grammatically incorrect yet semi-entertaining. One of my more entertaining That Can Be My Next Tweet-generated responses: ‘Syracuse balloon company is always forget about being right there. Jon Stewart, you’re a big angry birds!’ Terribly nonsensical.

Now that I’ve ruined Twitter for you by drawing parallels to Barbie, go out there and use some of these fun Twitter accessories. Or if you don’t use Twitter, sign up. And please, for my sake, get rid of the abominable egg.

Jessica Smith is a junior information management and technology and television, radio and film dual major. Her column appears every Tuesday, and she can be reached at [email protected].





Top Stories