Twitter recently changed its prompt question from "What are you doing?" to the more open-ended "What’s happening?"—triggering the sort of intense discussion and analysis that any small change to a cherished social media site provokes. What's the subtext of the new text?
The new prompt clarifies the site's mission: Twitter was originally (and modestly) concieved to let people post "personal status updates," says Barb Dybwad at Mashable, but it has evolved into a broader discussion forum and an outlet for "citizen journalism." At very least, "what's happening?" makes the site more intuitive to new users.
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