Twitter: Trivial. Beautifully So.

I wrote a post a year and a half ago on Twitter in which I identified two types of use for it. This was at the height of the initial buzz about Twitter, and while some folks were really excited to finally see an HTML / SMS / IM social application, others worried aloud that Twitter, for the same reasons it offers such a low threshold of entry, would also tend to erode the quality of social relationships online. The thoughtful anti-Twitter point of view was that it encourages triviality, and the gist of my post was that while that may be true, there are times when trivialities are useful.

Since I wrote that post, I've become an avid Twitterer, and I have to say my perspective on Twitter, and indeed on triviality, has changed. I now see triviality as maybe the critical element of truly meaningful relationships, online and off, and Twitter has accordingly become one of the cornerstone services of my personal and professional social lives.

That sounds crazy, I know, and while it may be true that I am prone to crazy-sounding declaratives, I'm actually not kidding about this. I now use Twitter at work very frequently, mostly within my team, and it has improved our functioning and, dare I say it, made us closer, more personally connected.

Let me float an assertion: The deeper the relationship, the greater the proportion of it dedicated to triviality; and beyond, say, 90% triviality, the relationship isn't a relationship at all. And likewise with meaningful interactions--if everything is meaningful, it's not a relationship, it's therapy.

So here is my Bullseye Diagram of Love, illustrating the way I'm starting to envision online social systems supporting healthy relationships:

So I'm arguing for Twitter, or an analogous triviality service (ha!) as a supplement to existing relationships, not as a full-fledged social channel in and of itself. As a social network, I actually do think it's useless, or worse. And you can take that as a caveat.

But I am saying I think triviality in general and as supported by Twitter, in both personal and professional settings, is indispensable--that we can and should deliberately design it into social systems.

Comments

[Warren Sukernek]

I like the idea of a triviality service, not just as a supplement to existing relationships, but also as a means of growing new ones. Many community experts have noted that discussion of trivial topics often results in cementing friendships and bonds of those with loose ties. Twitter is the perfect place for this type of activity. A great article, written by @pomeranian99 in the NY Times, describes the concept, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/magazine/07awareness-t.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin which he calls Ambient Awareness.

@warrenss

[Ryan]

Thanks for the note and link, Warren. You know, I had read that NYT article, but I didn't put it together as I was thinking through this post. It's a great article.

And yes, the Facebook news feed idea is very much the kind of idea I'm describing in the post. But I also think the idea of "ambient awareness" far from fully realized on Facebook. Not only is the awareness "contained" (on the news feed page) rather than "ambient," but the activity we're being made aware of feels like it's more about Facebook than it is about people. Maybe that's because so many of the events in the news feed are triggered automatically, and maybe it's because so many of those events feel spammy.

Or maybe I'm just too old to like Facebook.

It's also interesting to me to consider the differences between, for example, FriendFeed, which aggregates activity across many services, and the services themselves (like Twitter).

[Nick Leggett]

As Twitter just reached its 1 billionth tweet, it's clearly working somehow! I agree with your insight--it's the many, seemingly insignificant shared moments that combine into a shared experience--a community.

A problem with both Twitter and Facebook is that you can only broadcast your experiences to ALL your connections. If you could segment them and easily broadcast more targeted messages there would be less spam and more value.

[Samir Singh]

Great post Ryan. It raises the question of where you draw the line between meaningful and trivial. Your diagram shows a stark distinction but perhaps it's more fuzzy. As an example, we might think that a trivial post would be 'leaving whole foods. man I love shiny fruit' but for those following you such a seemingly trivial post contains a key clue about the kind of person you are (one who cares about food quality) another example might be 'watching (insert child's name) take first steps'. Again, trivial potentially, but really enlightening as a window into a life. I guess I'm saying that maybe what is trivial is really meaningful and what is meaningful is trivial. The trivial might be precisely the interstitial stuff that enables us to understand another. Thoughts? Would love to hear about how you guys are using Twitter at work. Sounds very cool.