Chowrangi

In a year dominated by world-shaking political events, a deadly disease (Swine Flu), the aftereffects of a financial tsunami and the death of a well-regarded pop icon (Michael Jackson), the word Twitter stands above all other words. According to the Global Language Monitor, a Texas company that tracks word usage on the Internet, “Twitter” has been named the “Top Word of 2009” beating Obama and H1N1.

Global Language Monitor explained that it picks its list of top words by tracking words and phrases used in the global media, blogs, social networking sites and other online venues. Frequency of usage is rated, along with contextual usage and momentum.

The 10 top words for 2009 were:

1. Twitter
2. Obama
3. H1N1
4. Stimulus
5. Vampire
6. 2.0
7. Deficit
8. Hadron
9. Healthcare
10. Transparency

Meanwhile, the 10 top phrases were:

1. King of Pop
2. Obama-mania
3. Climate change
4. Swine flu
5. Too large to fail
6. Cloud computing
7. Public option
8. Jai Ho!
9. Mayan calendar
10. God particle

The use of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter has increased in past few years. Unlike face book, twitter restrict is users to share only 140 characters per tweet. The success of micro blogging site is probably because of the fact that it has been used by many news groups, celebrities and media personalities to interact with public. Whatever is in your mind, you can share with the world in just 140 characters when you are on twitter.

Let’s see where this wave of social media takes us. For the time being, I was wondering if the survey restricts to Pakistan what word would it be. Anybody’s guess

Other posts by Hina Safdar

• Advertisement by Indian Railways shows Delhi in Pakistan - March 20th, 2010
• The controversy of Punjab Police logo - March 20th, 2010
• Kidnapped British boy Sahil Saeed Naqash Reunites With Parents - March 18th, 2010
• Sans consumer Protection law on Consumer Rights Day - March 15th, 2010
• PCB confused On Players Ban - March 11th, 2010
• PCB Crackdown on Former Captains post Aussie Tour - March 10th, 2010
• More than 80,000 cell phones snatched last year in Pakistan - March 6th, 2010
• Farmville another reason to be on facebook - March 4th, 2010
• Pemra wants to hear it from you - March 3rd, 2010
• Basant and the Kite Plight- To be or not to be - February 22nd, 2010