Why Does Twitter Matter?

As I very slowly make my way up in the Twitter numbers game (shamefully through no effort of my own), I can't help but wonder the significance of this popular Short Message Service (SMS) toward the progress of our virtual culture.

There are the obvious, but perhaps unanswerable, questions that are worthy of asking about Twitter, such as:

• Can you, most of the time, say what you really want, or say anything meaningful, in 140 characters or less?
• How can one person read tweets from hundreds of Twitterers, let alone hundreds of thousands?
• Or why would somebody want to follow a Twitterer who sends on average 50 tweets per hour…every hour?

I'm currently following a group numbering only in the double digits, and I'm having difficulty keeping up. Or maybe I'm not using sophisticated enough technology that I know probably already exists to sort out the more substantial posts from the casual ones.

And there are the other not-so-obvious questions about Twitter, such as, what is the higher purpose of such a networking tool? Is anybody really paying close attention to what's being said?

Part of the attraction of micro-blogging tools such as Twitter and Facebook's wall is the instant update you can read about from just about anybody who matters to you. This appeal also includes the desire to be directly connected with someone of perceived importance, such as Oprah or Britney Spears, despite the fact many celebrities hire ghostwriters to submit their tweets. For many, this connection allows a person to feel they are having a direct and intimate conversation — and perhaps personal relationship — with popular figures of our culture.

Currently it has its limitations, drawbacks, and unappealing aspects, such as: the lack of depth of information, the potential for sensitive information to be misconstrued or reach the wrong audience, and the excessive use by marketers to push questionable money-making schemes. And these reasons may give it the appearance of something less important, less useful in navigating our life's course.

But the reason this type of service is appealing and will probably be sustained in one form or another is its similarity in construct to our higher connection we have with each other on the collective conscious level. Like the Internet, a global network instantly connecting one human or group with another, on this higher level of consciousness we are in instant communication with each other and reaching out on an energetic wave to connect, become informed, enlighten, comfort, and serve in some way. Its representation can even be compared on a physical level where our lives are all interconnected like a vast spider web across the globe, and daily decisions and actions we make can have a tremendous impact on others even on the other side of the world.

So this replication is important to recognize, because as we do so, we learn to integrate a higher purpose into these types of far-reaching tools, allowing them to help us serve others in ways we've never imagined before the advent of the Internet and World Wide Web. In its current form of infancy, when we learn how to play and interact with new toys, we are trying out various ways to use our new discovery. Over time micro-blogging will develop into a more substantial tool of communication as we learn new useful and fun ways to utilize its form for our higher purpose.

In the meantime, I'm learning to improve upon my tweeting methods and discovering all the cool tools for more optimal communication and people connections. And just trying to figure the whole thing out.

This text by Linda Anderson of HolisticFuture.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.