In Defense of Social Media
I’ve explained Twitter to the uninitiated a number of times. The first question is often the same.
“Why?”
Why do people think what they ate for breakfast is that interesting?
Why do people care what someone had for breakfast?
Why do people waste there time in such a way?
I’ve always had trouble answering such questions.
So I just point people to a Wired article from 2007: How Twitter Creates a Social Sixth Sense.
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.
Many focus on social media noise: follow notices from recruiters, discussions about Paris Hilton, pointless Facebook app invites.
Annoying? Yes. But it’s the price paid for connectivity – added to the list alongside telemarketers and spam.
The benefits are amazing, though.
Walking downtown Seattle in January, I noticed there were a number of blocks taped off by police. I didn’t have access to an FM radio, but I had a phone with access to Twitter.
My search: “Seattle”
First result: “Avoid 4th and Union in Downtown Seattle. Police have blocked street. There was a bank robbery.”
Instant and relevant. I didn’t have to wait for the local TV or Radio station to send out a reporter. And I really didn’t have to wait for the next day’s paper.
The following weekend, I participated in Seattle Startup Weekend 2. Again, a simple twitter search kept me in the loop all weekend: #SSW2. I found people looking for sushi. I found collaborators. And just as important, people found me: looking for expertise, looking for suggestions, looking to hire.
We no longer live in small villages where our friends are always in close physical proximity. We live in a global village. Random encounters on the street can be augmented by random encounters on the web. We may not have access to water cooler gossip, but that doesn’t mean we can’t stay plugged into the pulse of the friends and communities we care about.
Written by Kevin Moore
Similar Posts:
- Ten Ways Not to be a Tool on Twitter
- Four weird and wonderful things people have built with Twitter
- The Narcissism of Social Media, Part One
