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Reassuring bits of nothing, from all over the globe

Posted on October 11, 2007 by Caitlin
Posted in silliness

Twitter is a strange entrant onto the social networking stage … I must admit I don’t really see the point. People share little 120-character bits of information about themselves (“just had a great burrito for lunch”, “waiting for my dad to pick me up”, etc.), and their friends — or complete strangers — can subscribe to and read them. I’m just not that interested in what kind of coffee someone in Michigan just ordered, or why a guy in Spain is waiting for a phone call.

However, I must admit to a surprising fascination with TwitterVision:

twittervision.jpg

This mashup of twitter nonsense with Google Maps is actually sort of … well, reassuring. Somehow, plotting all these bits of trivia on a world map makes the continents seem like cozy neighbors, and the differences between us not so great. The more banal experiences of daily life are really rather similar (especially among the web-savvy set).

So, enjoy your latte, Michigan, and Spain-guy, I hope you get your phone call!

  • CG

    Flickrvision is even more fantastic — an international slide show of places and people, like an unedited and real-time version of a coffee table travel book.

  • http://zodomatica.com Tzaddi

    That is a bit fascinating!

    I didn’t get twitter either at first, but now I do. Havi Brooks calls it a bar – a place to hang out with cool people. It’s more asynchronous than that, so I think of it like a slow chat room. As a freelancer working alone it can be a nice break from the day, a way to share, on your schedule, without interrupting people.

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