3.18.2009

twitter-lepathy.

Twitter, hashtags, and mobile devices more or less equate to telepathy. No, seriously, hear me out on this.


This is something I realized at PodCamp Toronto. Searching tweets by hashtag or by location let me know what people were thinking in the sessions I was in, sessions across the venue, and the thoughts of people who couldn't make it to the site.

Twitter enforces brevity, sure. But it's also just about the right size to encapsulate a single thought. I find I only clash with the limit when I actually have several related thoughts that I want to express.

Most people think telepathy would be a curse. I've always disagreed, assuming that we could develop a half-decent filtering mechanism. Twitter deals with a few of those problems naturally; people don't tweet things they are uncomfortable with sharing, and you are only exposed to that you opt in to / search for. Telepathy via Twitter is easily sorted, and more noise only equates to more potential signal.

Telepathy would me mostly mundane. People's thoughts aren't always useful. But this is how we understand people - through the collection of their inanities. Sound familiar?

The big lesson regarding telepathy that I've gleaned from Twitter is just that - there's no such thing as noise, as long as it's coherent. People aren't being inane. They are giving you context and backstory. You don't learn anything about people from seeing them in their edited, presentable best. You learn about them when they are being stream of consciousness, being unedited.

Being people.

Enjoy your faux-telepathy while it lasts. I know I will.


2 comments:

Connie Crosby said...

I think these may be the most profound ruminations on Twitter I have seen yet. I am glad podcamp served you well.

Cheers,
Connie

jon crowley said...

Thanks, Connie.

I'm probably overthinking it, but I'm glad it was worth the read. And thanks again for all of your amazing work on podcamp TO, it was a truly great experience. Sorry I didn't get to meet you in person there, but I guess there's always next year.

Take care,

Jon