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Why We Love Twitter: A Case Study of Nigerian #BankWar


What attractiveness makes Twitter a media of the future despite not having humongous coverage like Facebook, nor the allure of Instagram or the ubiquity of WhatsApp? It is a serious question for going-concern and a market pitch for those with listening corporate ear. The lesson of interconnectivity and openness has been learned from the hubris of BBM. Alas, almost all social media platforms have leveraged on the circle of sharing-- interconnectivity. Users can post to several social media platforms at once.

Twitter has this edge of an evolving culture that is quite appealing to teeming youths. Despite the character limitations, it avails users a limited exposure to unnecessary verbosity. Its succinct bio-data protects twitterati from exposure to personality theft and privacy poke-nosing. The most fun of it all is the direct followership to stars and access to their tweets. From here, the evolving culture starts which can be further understood with the meaning of these terms;
Clap back: (the expression made prominent by Ja Rule his album title for his 50cent diss 2003). Clap back is a defiant response to a tweet or sarcastic hit back layered with discernible touches of humor. Users are always on the lookout for classic clap back. Examples of which we are going to see in the Nigerian #BankWar
Meme: according to Wikipedia, is a catchphrase, or a piece of media that spreads, often as mimicry or for humorous purposes, from person to person via the internet (twitter): Gifs, short videos,  conscious misspellings etc. Examples:



It’s on one of these fascinating allures that Nigerian #BankWar crystallized. Sterling bank notable for her one-customer bank slang tweeted a graphic "throwing subs and shade" to like 6 other banks: Access bank with the access logo, GTBank, the usual box with top corner window, FirstBank with the elephant image, Union Bank with the rearing horse, UBA the background building similar to their head office, FCMB background building similar to their head office and many other probably subsumed banks not understood. 


Lolz...and the Naija twitter-sphere was aglow. Access bank's clap back was (you can only relate if you remember that sterling bank's catchphrase is one customer bank):


Union Bank's rejoinder was from a question of smartness and safety in such a take off: 


FirstBank retorted also with multiple tweets establishing her deserved respect amidst the comity of banks from  a "sho mo age mi ni" perspective blended with a proverbial truism: 




FCMB would be thinking they are not subbed but indeed their building structure was captured. Her response so far: 


GTBank and UBA are yet to respond not getting drawn into the corporate slug.
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Such liveliness is the allure and the going concern of twitter. It does not only happen in our locality but across the globe. Below is also a screenshot of ensuing tweet-war between Etihad stadium and Wembley stadium:





...and this, aside from information, is what we love Twitter for and we still see more. The humor, the sarcasm, the irony, the paradox in tweets, clap backs, meme, GIFs etc are what we cannot leave twitter for. 
-toonday 
On Toonday's Perspectives


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