比起plurk或facebook，twitter一堆讓人摸不著頭緒的留言，要看什麼？"Why asking us to observe twitter" my young friends replied. "Comparing with plurk or facebook, most expressions there are meaningless, aren't they?

大學生問有關觀察未來：為什麼要我們也看twitter，上面不就一堆言不及義的留言（比起plurk或facebook）？
在現代性社會裡觀察未來，有幾個前提或現實，可要先想清楚了：

一、目前主要影響全球現代性社會發展（無論好壞）的作用力來自於美國，而且很可能在未來五十年內，還是。

二、參與未來，光靠一小撮人在研討會、世界咖啡館（the world cafe）、網站平台上共創願景（參與這種活動的通常是取得入場資格的各方「菁英」，至少，是想或能在那種場域裡發言的人），然後砸官方砸資源去推這些討論結論，其實「實際」並不夠（喔，打個比方：無論我們用什麼飼料、動什麼手術，總不可能把已出生的小猴養成一個人吧）；重點在於---不夠普羅大眾，或在那些場合中，通常仍充斥著主流典範的現代性（modernity，不過，現代性這裡先不討論） 。

三、twitter，就是目前英語系國家，尤其是美國，普羅大眾（也包括產官學）表述與接收動態即時訊息的主要平台之一（特色在於：比起facebook，維護一個twitter帳號的負擔感更低）。

四、twitter使用者常用縮語，也愛製造標籤（主題標籤都是從使用者中湧現的，例如：#FF is a tag for Follow Friday ）   ，會比plurk或facebook上的簡短留言，讓此時不諳英語文化或美國社會動態者，更難make sense，也就是，看起來的言不及義，不見得是跳tone空洞，可能是因為我們未能掌握這些脈絡的習性與意義。

五、詮釋過往的我們，要能窺見一點兒未來，所站立的「現在」的位置必須夠即時、能及時、夠自在、能自發、夠根本、能普及；對於台灣的普羅，我們可以觀察台灣的facebook、plurk、也許ptt，對於英語系社會，尤其是美國，幾個首要可以觀察的則是Google、及其收購的Youtube、Apple、及其App Store與iTunes Store、主要是英語人口的Facebook平台，當然，再來就是另一使用量數一數二的twitter。


...倘若，各類資料或訊息繼續以朝數位化與公開化的方向發展（外交與軍事類資料恐怕有限，但是，未來被宣稱為隱私或機密的，保護資料的正當性無疑地一定得回應更大的挑戰）---
那麼，如何判斷對象的系統組成與其間關係、如何取得與其相關的過往與即時資訊、哪些資訊在前述判斷與方法的框架中被有意無意地遺漏了、如何衡量找來的資訊本身的信度效度及彼此的關連、如何在找出來的資料中抓到發展轉折的關鍵
---將會在十五年內成為吾人（不僅在高等教育階段） 十分重要又相當常識的學習內容；不過...未來課程，何必等到十五年後修？

瞧瞧下面這表，看到這個twitter社會，上週以來，都興趣著談論著哪些主題或訊息了嗎？！那，如果是上上週、上上上一整個月呢？如果是從前年到去年...呢？

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http://mashable.com/2010/04/10/twitter-trends-this-week-2/

Top Twitter Topics This Week: 4/3 – 4/9

It’s finally come to pass — the Boy King of Twitter, Justin Bieber, has been dethroned by everyone’s favorite egg-themed holiday, Easter, in this week’s trending topics. We’ve got another insightful glance at the goings-on of the Twitterverse, thanks to our pals at What the Trend. Because this is a topical list, hash tags and games have been omitted from the chart below. As expected, Easter trended heavily, taking the top spot as people celebrated and sent well wishes out to Twitter friends and family. The tradition of Follow Friday also remained high in the ranks, coming in at number three, and Twitter itself took the number four spot, likely due in part to a 20 minute outage on April 5th. Apple had a big week, and came in at number five on the list. People tweeted vigorously about their brand new iPad (which went on sale last Saturday), or lack thereof. Apple also announced the upcoming release of the iPhone OS 4.0, slated for release this summer, which will include some long-awaited features like multitasking and app folders.

March Madness held onto the top tends, taking the number six spot as the championship NCAA basketball game was played on Monday, with Duke emerging victorious over Butler in a 61-59 point nail-biter.

Other trends included the Jonas Brothers at number 7 (a Twitter trend mainstay), and the Digital Economy Bill at number eight, which became law in the UK amid some contentious issues about copyright and the ability of ISPs to block access to infringing websites.

Rounding out the list are hip hop artist Nicki Minaj, whose fans retweeted her in droves earlier this week, and the Christian holiday Good Friday.

Rank	Topic	Top index this week	Change	Description
#1	Easter	1	2	People are wishing one another Happy Easter, which occurs this year on Sunday, April 4th.
#2	Justin Bieber	1		Although Justin Bieber had been trending for weeks, his fans are upset when Twitter supposedly blocked his name from being able to trend.
#3	Follow Friday	1		#FF is a tag for Follow Friday, the meme where users list other Twitterers to follow.
#4	Twitter	1		People are tweeting about why and when you should delete your Tweets. Twitter was down for approx 20 mins, April 5. People are tweeting about what they did when they couldn’t tweet.
#5	Apple	1		Apple’s will release version 4.0 of the iPhone operating system this Summer. The iPhone will finally get multitasking support along with a social gaming network, iAds, and other features. People also tweeted about their iPad experiences.
#6	March Madness	1	2	Duke defeated Butler in the NCAA championship, 61-59.
#7	Jonas Brothers	1		The boy band whose members are brothers Kevin, Joe and Nick.
#8	Digital Economy Bill	2		The Digital Economy Bill just passed through the UK Parliament, people are discussing the implications.
#9	Nicki Minaj	2		Nicki Minaj said "#shoutouttotheLadies in da MOM crew. Money Over Men. Let’s Go"
#10	Good Friday	2		Good Friday is a holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary.

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