It's real time at the same time
A decade-plus into the Information Age, are you suddenly feeling like your trusty e-mail works a bit too slowly to really satisfy your needs, that blogs are looking a little formal, stodgy and, now that you mention it, downright old-media-esque? And your MySpace page -- complete with pictures of your favorite TV shows, audio of that song you can't get out of your head and the photos a friend snapped of you moments after that ill-advised ninth tequila shot last weekend -- is even this page feeling somehow impersonal and remote?
Well, if these feelings are welling up, fret not. The Web's early promises of absolute connectedness to the greater universe were not idle threats. A new generation of websites is bringing us ever closer to the electronic demolition of the I/thou paradox.
The folks at Twitter.com have built their site around the seemingly toothless but cosmically important question, "What are you doing?" Launched in July, the aptly named service aims to close the real-time gap between you and your friends when you are not e-mailing, instant- or text-messaging one another, by letting you send your nearest and dearest up-to-the-minute updates on everything you think and do.
Twitter works by hypercharging social networks such as those on MySpace or Friendster. A new Twitter user creates a very basic profile and then creates a mini-network by linking to his or her friends, family, acquaintances and pretty faces found through browsing the site. Then, whenever the mood strikes, the user logs in to Twitter.com (or sends it a note via text or instant messenger), answering the "What're you doing" question in 150 characters or fewer. Once you chime in with your latest activity or pondering, your message is then radiated out to all the members of your circle, who can check in at their webpage to see what their friends are up to, or better still, receive flashing updates on their cellphones or instant messengers whenever a friend checks in.
The result, according to Jack Dorsey, the force behind Twitter, "brings you closer to everyone, because you know what everyone is doing, things you would never imagine."
On a typical Sunday evening, a glance at Twitter's public page, where its users' collective messages are posted, does indeed reveal a cross section of what might be a moment in the life of the Information Generation. Among the updates posted within a one-hour period:
"watching cat videos on youtube"
- IBM to Spend $1 Billion on Net Research Dec 12, 1996
- Cisco Systems to Fund USC Computer Lab Jun 23, 1999
- Spotlight: Cisco to Enter Cable-Networking Market Sep 19, 1997
