Twitter as telepathy.

Panda Press kills it again!

Twitter is Telepathy.

Or at least, a major precursor to it.

As we interact with Instant Messages, [Google] Readers, RSS Feeds, Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and extreme multitasking, we are literally rewiring our brains to accommodate not just a constant stream of information being uploaded into us, but multiple streams of thought as well. Twitter is just the latest facilitator of our rapidly skyrocketing information upload rate…

…

Just Do It

Naturally, when I first conflated Twitter with telepathy, I tweeted about it:

@pandang:Sometimes I think Twitter is the first step toward telepathy. You have everyone’s head in your head @ the same time, but you can easily…
@pandang:…filter out or listen in to certain voices. We stay connected 24/7, but don’t have to talk directly unless we want to. Think about it.

Moments later my friend @theMaykazine re-tweeted what I said, prompting my response:

@pandang: @theMaykazine I was “chatting” w/ a friend via twitter & it hit me. Our generation’s ability to multitask is like a step in evolution. :O

All of this has basically proved my point. I had a thought, Mayka heard it, responded, and then we were in conversation. I hadn’t said one word to her all morning, but within moments, we were talking, and just as quickly, we weren’t. Meanwhile our mutual friends could see our discussion and could have chosen to jump in if they wanted to.

Telepathy. We’re getting there and it’s kind of awesome…

…I’m already Jean Grey.

Via Twitter Is Telepathy – Panda Press.

Whether “telephathy” is the most accurate way to describe it or not, I have been conscious lately of how Twitter has changed the way I learn about current events. I registered my account over two years ago, right after Twitter hit the big time at SXSW, and for about a year I was tooling around on it, not sure what to do with it.

Now, much to the Bruce Brugmanns of the world’s chagrins, Twitter has become my super stream of friends’ and fave public figures’ updates, AND it’s replaced even the NYT headlines daily email. I get my news on what’s hip to IM to friends and what’s breaking slow news days via Twitter. Yes, Communication Studies experts, I get my news in 140-character headlines, and I am all the more informed because of it!

Think of it as merely an issue of adaptation, and not so much rejection of old or new technologies.