"Good Things Come in Lightweights": A Group Decision-Making Analysis Comparing Twitter on Mobile Communication Devices to Computer-Mediated Communication

This paper reports on a study of the effects of Twitter-enabled mobile communication devices on group decision-making and group dynamics. One hundred and sixty-seven university students formed 44 groups under two distinct communication conditions: Twitter operating on mobile communication devices (TMCD), and Google Groups online message boards (OMB) accessed through personal computers. Each group was tracked as it completed an assigned set of group decision-making tasks. The study’s results are analyzed through media synchronicity theory and its distinction between conveyance and convergence communication processes. TMCD exhibited significantly fewer conflicting (unfriendly) messages and a greater number of initiatory messages than OMB. Moreover, with tasks involving convergence communication processes, TMCD achieved significantly higher levels of conformity and satisfaction than OMB. These results imply that lightweight, portable mobile communication devices (MCDs), enabled with Twitter or another similar interface, complement conventional computer-mediated communication, offering an effective means of group decision-making.