Clive Thompson talks about Twitter in this week’s issue calling it the “social sixth sense”. While some would think that this new app is just another dying fad I tend to agree with a lot of what Clive talks about. Having experienced it myself I now have a better understanding of some of my peers who have hooked this app to their chat client creating as Clive calls it “social proprioception”.

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

It is building a sense community as we get more and more isolated working remotely and exclusively. So when I learn that my programmer from Phillipines loves onion bagels and hates the rains I now have a better understanding of her likes and dislikes.

Agreed that there are drawbacks to using this tool, like being constantly pinged about your friend’s whereabouts can get annoying at times, I still believe that the tool has the power to improve social communication through non-emotive mechanisms.

The challenge though is how do you communicate in less than 160 characters? Think back to the first few words that were uttered by humans or as Clive says - haiku. You can only get better.

Read the Wired article