Apple Integration of Facebook and Twitter Sharing Could Promote Individualistic Posts
Apple has announced the integration of Facebook and Twitter sharing through Apple notifications, effectively eliminating the previous necessity of users to go to the social networking sites to share their thoughts. This move towards ease and efficiency can also reduce the act of social networking into a stream of individualistic shout outs.
Apple continues to make changes and enhancements to its system, the most recent of which is the Facebook and Twitter sharing option through notifications. The change makes things easier for users.
Links to Facebook and Twitter are now seamless thanks to the Tap to Post buttons to appear in iOS and OS X Mountain Lion’s Notifications centers, making users only swipe away from sharing. But it also raises concerns of effectively eliminating the ‘social’ in social networking.
The feature means that users no longer have to visit Facebook or Twitter to post statuses and tweets. Although vastly quicker, such a process also reduces users’ visits to the platform where they see what their friends are posting.
The unique feature of social sites such as Facebook and Twitter is to build networking through interaction that happens when the user reads posts on his newsfeed tweets on his timeline after putting out his own shoutout. The change though effectively divorces the composer from the content.
Early criticism on the OS X and iOS Notifications is that sharing could make people more likely to post “This is what I’m doing” rather than “What do you think about this?” The subtle difference marks a shift towards egotistical bragging from authentic conversation.
Also, the integration from Apple products into Facebook and Twitter could threaten the average Likes, comments, replies, and retweets as people are not forced into their newsfeeds and threads anymore.
Apple is a major player in this day and age where tech giants have the power to control the way people communicate. Seemingly small interfaces changes like this one is poised to push to billions of people into a completely different way of expressing their thoughts than what the current landscape is cultivating.
