The swan tweet

It is the social network of the latest news and official positions taken. In contrast to the more playful intimacy of Facebook, it is on Twitter that politicians, economy and finance top managers and stars make statements (or reply); everyone is on the platform, famous for its 140 message characters, including Pope Francis (who “follows” only eight other people, but it is on the favourites list of 3 and a half million followers). Then: why is Twitter, ten years after its birth, in crisis?

This is the focus of the dossier “Front Page” published by IL. “For years – writes Vincenzo Latronico – new Twitter members have increased at a pace similar to that of Facebook, but from 2014 the curve has decreased to flatten completely.

When Twitter announced it had the same number of active users for the second consecutive quarter (just over 300 million), Facebook has exceeded one and a half billion. “What can we do then? The founder Jack Dorsey defines Twitter “the world’s most powerful microphone”, and wants to give it a new impetus.

One thing is certain: this social network has to compare itself with a panorama that has changed recently. On one hand, Twitter shares have decreased to a third of the price listed two years ago; on the other hand, the number of applications and sharing tools available to users have grown considerably.

In IL, the news and current trends are summarized in the pages edited by Sara Deganello, who lists the ten “apps” to keep an eye on.

The cover story is dedicated to “Modern Parenting”: ie, how new mums and dads are looking for their own way to raise children, by consulting books, blogs and dedicated websites.

The new issue of IL is available at the newsstands as of Friday, April 22nd.