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Clive Thompson on How Twitter Creates a Social Sixth Sense

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Saved by 92 people (-15 private), first by anonymouse user on 2007-07-15


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But here's my bet: The animating genius behind Twitter will live on in future apps. That tactile sense of your community is simply too much fun, too useful — and it makes the group more than the sum of its parts.

Highlighted by maartencannaerts

But here's my bet: The animating genius behind Twitter will live on in future apps. That tactile sense of your community is simply too much fun, too useful — and it makes the group more than the sum of its parts.

Highlighted by maartencannaerts

Clive Thompson on How Twitter Creates a Social Sixth Sense

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Clive Thompson on How Twitter Creates a Social Sixth Sense

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Clive Thompson on How Twitter Creates a Social Sixth Sense

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Highlighted by sarahhanawald

Twitter is the app that everyone loves to hate. Odds are you've noticed people — probably much younger than you — manically using Twitter, a tool that lets you post brief updates about your everyday

Highlighted by sarahhanawald

Twitter is the app that everyone loves to hate. Odds are you've noticed people —

Highlighted by zzzmegzzz

you've noticed people — probably much younger than you — manically using Twitter,

Highlighted by cssoares2007

tool that lets you post brief updates about your everyday thoughts and activities to the Web via browser, cell phone, or IM

Highlighted by cssoares2007

The messages are limited to 140 characters, so they lean toward pithy, haiku-like utterances

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It might seem like blogging taken to a supremely banal extreme

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"You can't say anything in such a short message," he said, baffled. "So why do it at all?"

Highlighted by cssoares2007

They're precisely right: Individually, most Twitter messages are stupefyingly trivial. But the true value of Twitter — and the similarly mundane Dodgeball, a tool for reporting your real-time location to friends — is cumulative. The power is in the surprising effects that come from receiving thousands of pings from your posse. And this, as it turns out, suggests where the Web is heading.

Highlighted by danholt

They're precisely right: Individually, most Twitter messages are stupefyingly trivial.

Highlighted by cssoares2007

Individually, most Twitter messages are stupefyingly trivial. But the true value of Twitter — and the similarly mundane Dodgeball, a tool for reporting your real-time location to friends — is cumulative. The power is in the surprising effects that come from receiving thousands of pings from your posse. And this, as it turns out, suggests where the Web is heading.

Highlighted by acidcookie

But the true value of Twitter — and the similarly mundane Dodgeball, a tool for reporting your real-time location to friends — is cumulative

Highlighted by cssoares2007

The power is in the surprising effects that come from receiving thousands of pings from your posse. And this, as it turns out, suggests where the Web is heading.

Highlighted by sarahhanawald

The power is in the surprising effects that come from receiving thousands of pings from your posse.

Highlighted by cssoares2007

And this, as it turns out, suggests where the Web is heading.

Highlighted by kcsnow

And this, as it turns out, suggests where the Web is heading.

Highlighted by cssoares2007

When I see that my friend Misha is "waiting at Genius Bar to send my MacBook to the shop," that's not much information. But when I get such granular updates every day for a month, I know a lot more about her. And when my four closest friends and worldmates send me dozens of updates a week for five months, I begin to develop an almost telepathic awareness of the people most important to me.

Highlighted by kcsnow

But when I get such granular updates every day for a month,

Highlighted by sarahhanawald

When I see that my friend Misha is "waiting at Genius Bar to send my MacBook to the shop," that's not much information. But when I get such granular updates every day for a month, I know a lot more about her. And when my four closest friends and worldmates send me dozens of updates a week for five months, I begin to develop an almost telepathic awareness of the people most important to me.

It's like proprioception, your body's ability to know where your limbs are. That subliminal sense of orientation is crucial for coordination: It keeps you from accidentally bumping into objects, and it makes possible amazing feats of balance and dexterity.

Twitter and other constant-contact media create social proprioception. They give a group of people a sense of itself, making possible weird, fascinating feats of coordination.

Highlighted by marcel

When I see that my friend Misha is "waiting at Genius Bar to send my MacBook to the shop," that's not much information. But when I get such granular updates every day for a month, I know a lot more about her. And when my four closest friends and worldmates send me dozens of updates a week for five months, I begin to develop an almost telepathic awareness of the people most important to me.

Highlighted by acidcookie

And when my four closest friends and worldmates send me dozens of updates a week for five months, I begin to develop an almost telepathic awareness of the people most important to me.

Highlighted by cssoares2007

dozens of updates a week for five months, I begin to develop an almost telepathic awareness of the people most important to me.

Highlighted by rahulg

It's like proprioception, your body's ability to know where your limbs are. That subliminal sense of orientation is crucial for coordination: It keeps you from accidentally bumping into objects, and it makes possible amazing feats of balance and dexterity.

Highlighted by rahulg

It's like proprioception, your body's ability to know where your limbs are

Highlighted by cssoares2007

That subliminal sense of orientation is crucial for coordination: It keeps you from accidentally bumping into objects, and it makes possible amazing feats of balance and dexterity

Highlighted by cssoares2007

Twitter and other constant-contact media create social proprioception. They give a group of people a sense of itself, making possible weird, fascinating feats of coordination.

Highlighted by cjarnold

Twitter and other constant-contact media create social proprioception. They give a group of people a sense of itself, making possible weird, fascinating feats of coordination.

Highlighted by kcsnow

Twitter and other constant-contact media create social proprioception. They give a group of people a sense of itself, making possible weird, fascinating feats of coordination.

Highlighted by jacevedo

Twitter and other constant-contact media create social proprioception

Highlighted by cssoares2007

They give a group of people a sense of itself, making possible weird, fascinating feats of coordination.

Highlighted by cssoares2007

Twitter and other constant-contact media create social proprioception. They give a group of people a sense of itself, making possible weird, fascinating feats of coordination.

Highlighted by acidcookie

For example, when I meet Misha for lunch after not having seen her for a month, I already know the wireframe outline of her life: S

Highlighted by sarahhanawald

For example, when I meet Misha for lunch after not having seen her for a month, I already know the wireframe outline of her life:

Highlighted by cssoares2007

She was nervous about last week's big presentation, got stuck in a rare spring snowstorm, and became addicted to salt bagels.

Highlighted by cssoares2007

With Dodgeball, I never actually race out to meet a friend when they report their nearby location; I just note it as something to talk about the next time we meet.

Highlighted by cssoares2007

You know who's overloaded — better not bug Amanda today — and who's on a roll.

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It's almost like ESP, which can be incredibly useful when applied to your work life.

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It's almost like ESP, which can be incredibly useful when applied to your work life. You know who's overloaded — better not bug Amanda today — and who's on a roll. A buddy list isn't just a vehicle to chat with friends but a way to sense their presence. Are they available to talk? Have they been away? This awareness is crucial when colleagues are spread around the office, the country, or the world. Twitter substitutes for the glances and conversations we had before we became a nation of satellite employees.

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A buddy list isn't just a vehicle to chat with friends but a way to sense their presence.

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social proprioception

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Are they available to talk? Have they been away? This awareness is crucial when colleagues are spread around the office, the country, or the world

Highlighted by cssoares2007

Twitter substitutes for the glances and conversations we had before we became a nation of satellite employees.

Highlighted by cssoares2007

So why has Twitter been so misunderstood? Because it's experiential. Scrolling through random Twitter messages can't explain the appeal. You have to do it — and, more important, do it with friends.

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why has Twitter been so misunderstood? Because it's experiential.

Highlighted by sarahhanawald

So why has Twitter been so misunderstood? Because it's experiential. Scrolling through random Twitter messages can't explain the appeal. You have to do it — and, more important, do it with friends.

Highlighted by marcel

Scrolling through random Twitter messages can't explain the appeal.

Highlighted by cssoares2007

So why has Twitter been so misunderstood? Because it's experiential

Highlighted by cssoares2007

So why has Twitter been so misunderstood? Because it's experiential. Scrolling through random Twitter messages can't explain the appeal. You have to do it — and, more important, do it with friends.

Highlighted by acidcookie

You have to do it — and, more important, do it with friends.

Highlighted by cssoares2007

(Monitoring the lives of total strangers is fun but doesn't have the same addictive effect.)

Highlighted by cssoares2007

Critics sneer at Twitter and Dodgeball as hipster narcissism, but the real appeal of Twitter is almost the inverse of narcissism. It's practically collectivist — you're creating a shared understanding larger than yourself.

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It's practically collectivist — you're creating a shared understanding larger than yourself.

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quick-ping media can be a massive time-suck.

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Mind you, quick-ping media can be a massive time-suck. You also may not want more information pecking at your frayed attention span.

Highlighted by cssoares2007

And who knows? Twitter's rabid fans (their numbers are doubling every three weeks) may well abandon it for a shinier new toy. It happened to Friendster

Highlighted by cssoares2007

hat tactile sense of your community is simply too much fun, too useful — and it makes the group more than the sum of its parts.

Highlighted by cssoares2007

But here's my bet: The animating genius behind Twitter will live on in future apps.

Highlighted by cssoares2007

it's experiential

Highlighted by bobsprankle

you're creating a shared understanding larger than yourself.

Highlighted by bobsprankle

Twitter's a great way to sharpen your thoughts down to their essence.

Highlighted by sarahhanawald