The Psychology of Twitter

I thought about Twitter this afternoon because I was reading some stuff on communications theory and psychology - not marketing or media. I love what Twitter potentially represents, not what it is today. But, I still cannot get myself to use Twitter – at least not yet. There’s been enough ranting by anti-Twitter people on the web so let me share some positive light on the whole thing.

The world could be better off with Twitter than without it. Twitter is being marketed as a way to keep track of what friends and family are doing. Fair enough. But, I don’t see Twitter as just a communication tool – it’s only a start. I don’t even see Twitter as just an effective social networking tool. In the very long run, it’s so much more than all of that …

If psychologist William James were still alive today, he would be impressed with what Evan Williams has created with Twitter. To me, Twitter is powerful because it really starts as an intrapersonal tool that enables people to record their stream of consciousness – uh, at least I hope they’re recording it. So, I find the value in the total archive of a dynamically recorded consciousness. The heightened capacity for social coordination along with the isolated capturing of a gazillion conscious experiences is what is so fascinating about Twitter. People who use Twitter are exposing others to their stream of consciousness. In so doing, the understanding of one another’s mental state of beliefs, motivations, interests, and perceptions are advancing gradually – especially within social groups. (Note: And, as I said at the start of this post, it’s more practical to market Twitter as a communication tool rather than a stream of consciousness medium so I “get” that part.)

Better understanding leads to improved interaction, cooperation (coordination?), and communication. This is precisely why I think the potential for Twitter has almost no boundaries. To me, Twitter is much more than a communication tool. For future generations, Twitter can represent a record of much more than static events and history. Twitter is a recording of the dynamic consciousness of individuals, groups, generations, and civilization. Before Twitter, it would have been impossible to envision a technology that enables such densely integrated representations of the consciousness of people.

So, if I think Twitter is so meaningful and valuable, why am I not Twittering? I have three and a half reasons for NOT using Twitter.

#1 – Right now, Twitter is largely a communication medium. And, I do not need another communication medium.

#2 – Twitter users focus on what they are doing vs. what they are thinking prior to, during, and after they do something. And, I could care less what people are doing at any or all given times.

#3 – To get the most value out of Twitter, I feel as though my posts would need to be frequent and I’m just not ready to be committed to it, yet.

#3.5 – The biggest reason I don’t Twitter is because of the cardinal rule of any social networking tool or service … you can’t be the lone member. In other words, none of my close friends are on Twitter. By the way, my definition of close friends is either a) those who will show up at my funeral when my number is called or b) those who will ask for the address upon finding out that I landed in a hospital with some serious ailment. The rest are “contacts” and trusted personal acquaintances.

But, four things Twitter could do to make me participate …

#1 – Save every single stream for future generations. Figure out a methodology through which the streams of consciousness can be saved and interpreted. Adding nonlinguistic communication may be the only way given the endless possible combinations of language.

#2 – Incorporate a predictive market capability into Twitter. The Twitter model is perfectly suited for it. This could be a better way to monetize users than targeted advertising via analytics which is still too intrusive and risky.

#3 – Change “What are you doing?” to “What are you thinking?” Users are more likely to state what they’re thinking AND doing when the latter question is posed. For example, “I’m at the Oakland A’s game and wondering why the stadium is so empty” (valuable to my social group and the A’s organization) instead of “I’m at a ballgame.”

#4 – Give recipients of messages the ability to give feedback on each individual stream. A simple “Glad to know” or “Me too” or “Right on!” or any number of other reply option would make every Twitter stream adapt better to its social group and reduce the noise level. Just add a way to give the encoder a hint of how their message got decoded.

I'll keep rooting for Twitter from the sidelines for now!

- John

Comments

[moses]

Check out my article on the psychology of twitter:

http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-tao-innovation/200903/understanding-the-psychology-twitter