Comments on: Twitter Myrmecology: Pheromones in the Twitterstream

By: jaygoldman

jaygoldman — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 07:24:39 +0000

Like does attract like, but I think there's something in what you said about "the people you connect to are sort of like you". Since they'll never be exactly like you, the areas in which you don't overlap are the ones in which their other interests are new to you. It's certainly true that we would never find any new sources of burgers if we all only followed people we were perfectly in sync with, but those out-of-phase bits are where discovery happens. It's not unlike last.fm — for example — where I regularly discover new music from people with whom I share similar but not identical musical tastes.

Thanks for the second great comment!

By: jaygoldman

jaygoldman — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 07:19:52 +0000

Thanks for the great comment Eli!

I guess, in some ways, the Twitter Firehose is whatever you make it. If you choose to follow people like yourself then you get lots of "self-affirming" tweets. If you choose to fill your firehose with people different than yourself, you get a shocking blast of dissonance. Human nature suggests that most of us go for warm and fuzzy firehoses instead of difficult and challenging ones, so maybe it's time to re-evaluate who you're following and look for some chances to interject new ideas and challenges.

By: Eli Malinsky

Eli Malinsky — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 03:52:26 +0000

The thing is that innovation relies on diversity. Exposure to new ideas and new people. Really new ideas and people – not just sort-of new ideas and people. Ideas and people that challenge us. So I worry that by surrounding ourselves with stuff and people that we are already 'in tune' with limits our chance to really be innovative and achieve breakthroughs. We already know that we can – and often do – surround ourselves with news that reinforces our perspective. I wonder how big a challenge this is when it comes to self-reinforcing and self-referential social networks.

(this same thing happens with our brains, right? We think one way. Then we think a second way. Then we think that first way again. And again. And again. And suddenly those synapses have become so well tread that they become ruts, and we can never get to that second way of thinking again)

There's also the danger of mistaking your social network universe for The Universe. This can lead to erroneous judgments and conclusions about the world around us.

Anyway, i should get back to work. Great post, Jay.

By: Eli Malinsky

Eli Malinsky — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 03:52:05 +0000

Bob, Doug, Adam and Carl found the burger. Hooray! But what they didn't realize is that there was an entire heap of discarded burgers in the dumpster just off to the right. An endless source of delicious food! They may discover it eventually. Or maybe not.

So what does this have to do with people? And Twitter?

Here's one of my great concerns with social networking and "being a webby system" in general. You have your network. Let's say it's 50 people. Someone in your network discovers some great content or a new great contact. This is shared with the network. This keeps happening. The network grows and more content flows within it. Great, right?

But there's one problem. Like attracts like in networks. The people you connect to are sort of like you. And the info you get is content you are often already interested in. And it often reinforces your own point of view.

By: deb schultz

deb schultz — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 08:28:33 +0000

very interesting…i like where you are going with this! I need to chew on it a bit..;)