Clive Thompson on How Twitter Creates a Social Sixth Sense
Popularity Report
![]() |
|||
![]() |
|||
![]() |
|||
![]() |
|||
![]() |
|||
![]() |
URL Tag Cloud
Bookmark History
Saved by 44 people (0 private), first by anonymouse user on 2007-07-15
- Emilyvickery on 2008-10-20 - Tags twitter , culture , wired
- Danholt on 2008-09-24 - Tags twitter , socialnetworking , web2.0
- Ghostdog23 on 2008-09-06 - Tags wired , web2.0 , socialnetworking , socialmedia , socialsoftware , technology , twitter , web
- Cjarnold on 2008-08-19 - Tags social_media , article
- Alicebarr on 2008-07-16 - Tags twitter
Public Sticky notes
Highlighted by emilyvickery
Highlighted by emilyvickery
Highlighted by sarahhanawald
Highlighted by sarahhanawald
It might seem like blogging taken to a supremely banal extreme. Productivity guru Tim Ferriss calls Twitter "pointless email on steroids." One Silicon Valley businessman I met complained that his staff had become Twitter-obsessed. "You can't say anything in such a short message," he said, baffled. "So why do it at all?"
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 oldjove
Highlighted by jahmount
Highlighted by danholt
Highlighted by sarahhanawald
Highlighted by jahmount
Highlighted by kcsnow
Highlighted by kcsnow
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.
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.
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: She was nervous about last week's big presentation, got stuck in a rare spring snowstorm, and became addicted to salt bagels. 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.
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.
Highlighted by oldjove
Highlighted by rahulg
Highlighted by jahmount
Highlighted by rahulg
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
Highlighted by kcsnow
Highlighted by egilfenbaum
Highlighted by jahmount
Highlighted by sarahhanawald
Highlighted by bobsprankle
Highlighted by jahmount
Highlighted by sarahhanawald
Highlighted by marcel
Highlighted by jahmount
Highlighted by egilfenbaum
Highlighted by jahmount
Highlighted by jahmount
Highlighted by sarahhanawald
Highlighted by jahmount
Highlighted by jahmount
Highlighted by jahmount
Highlighted by bobsprankle
Highlighted by bobsprankle
Highlighted by sarahhanawald


Public Comment