Drinking from a fire hose: Success strategies and coping mechanisms for learning through synchronous microblogging on Twitter

Abstract

Microblogging has emerged as popular tool for networking and communications among millions of users. The most popular microblogging application, Twitter, allows virtual groups to form spontaneously around shared interests and set times to come together to discuss a topic, resulting in what this study terms synchronous microblogging. These chats can result in an overwhelming intensity of discussion reminiscent of “drinking from a fire hose”. This study explored how social aggregation was characterized in this informal learning environment and identified the success strategies and coping mechanisms that chat participants employed. The study broadened the knowledge of the mechanics of successful synchronous microblogging chats and identified ways to motivate individuals to participate. Twitter chats were characterized by low levels of formality, high levels of topic focus, tight and loose relationship-building, high resource sharing, and high structure. The study was unable to determine whether knowledge can be socially constructed within a Twitter chat.