Twitter, Celebrity, Asymmetric and Symmetric Social Connections
Asymmetric attention is the key to another important concept, celebrity. Being famous means that a lot of people pay attention to you--after all, by definition it is famous people who appear on the cover of magazines, which are purchased because lots of people want to know what's happening with their favorite celebrities. But the celebrity doesn't, for the the most part, pay any attention to the fans (at least, not individually). Asymmetric attention ties in Twitter allows people like Oprah Winfrey to have millions of fans, just like she does on television, without needing to pay attention to all or even any of them. In short, asymmetric attention allows Twitter to be an extension of other forms of mass media as well as a conversational medium.
Likewise, the existence of symmetry is informative as well. If two people follow each other, then they are each paying attention to one another, and each is receiving information from the other. This is powerful stuff, even more so if each has sent @replies to the other, because this is better evidence of a strong social tie between them. Note that the exchange of @replies makes a symmetric connection out of two asymmetric ties.
Notes:
Twitter provides for asymmetric connections, where individuals follow others, making the people who don't follow back are celebrities; however, the system has been hacked with @replies, which make asymmetric connections symmetrical.
Folksonomies: web science social networking
Taxonomies:
/health and fitness/disorders/mental disorder/a.d.d. (0.575364)
/art and entertainment/books and literature/magazines (0.522509)
/science/mathematics/geometry (0.428583)
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Concepts:
Celebrity (0.970929): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
People (0.809113): website | dbpedia | freebase | yago
Fandom (0.747498): dbpedia | freebase
Symmetry (0.743696): dbpedia | freebase
Oprah Winfrey (0.730506): website | dbpedia | freebase | opencyc | yago
Want (0.718649): dbpedia | freebase
Gossip (0.688292): dbpedia | freebase
Group (0.664388): dbpedia | freebase


Triples
Are Lurkers on Twitter Part of the Community?
Lurkers Are Not Part of the Community > Comparison > Twitter, Celebrity, Asymmetric and Symmetric Social ConnectionsEsther Dyson argued that lurkers are not part of the community, they are fans, people observing the community. This would imply that Twitter users can be simultaneously lurkers in some relationships and community members where two users follow each other and use @reply with each other.
The Internet and the Celebrity Population Explosion
Twitter, Celebrity, Asymmetric and Symmetric Social Connections > Cause and Effect > The Population Explosion of Celebrities are Cancelling Each Other OutTwitter, blogs, social networks, and other online communications technologies make it easier to become a celebrity, as a result, celebrity becomes less and less valuable.
Celebrity Economy/Definition of Celebrity
Celebrity Economy > Example/Illustration > Twitter, Celebrity, Asymmetric and Symmetric Social ConnectionsIn a social networked medium, understanding celebrity is important if you are going to make money from it.