Digital Common Sense

Last Monday I posted Today, Twitterectomy. Tomorrow, Jaiku and Facebook and declared myself on a week-long hiatus from Twitter. As addicting as Twitter can be, the week away has made some things really clear. Actually, it only took a few days to reach clarity.

I didn’t get a single direct Twitter message or email checking in on me from a single person. Not one. That really says two things. First, the people I’m most connected to already have other means to stay in touch. And secondly, it shows that many of the ephemeral passing voices we think of as online friends, are passing connections, and pleasant though the might be, they’re easily and quickly replaced with other pleasant connections.

In short, our core social network isn’t limited to a single sharing link. Our real friends are connected in multiple ways, and the loss of one connecting link doesn’t herald the loss of a friend. Our social networks are like hives and we cluster around similar places, so our connection points linger even as they evolve.

Consider me a Twitter alum who’s graduated and moved on. I’ll visit the old place now and again, but not in the co-dependent, can’t-get-through-the-day-without fashion that’s so rampant. Web only for me. Only when I feel like it. No Twitter SMS or IM. It’ll be a random, occasional, and probably infrequent, stopping point, but nothing more. It no longer excites me.

In the stream information flows (you really must read Stowe’s thoughts) the signal-to-noise ratio on Twitter has shifted. There’s too much noise and too little signal. I’m no longer interested in being the human noise filter, straining out the bits of goodness that are there. Stepping away from Twitter for this past week has been much akin to when the next door neighbor turns off that annoying table saw at the end of the day. What I noticed was a sense of quiet…not serenity, but increased calm.

What I really noticed this week is that, while I didn’t remove myself from the torrent of information, I moved to a higher plane. I achieved a greater equilibrium. Balance is key. This week I was able to engage more in thoughtful, and thought provoking conversation. If there was a fundamental shift I could identify, it was “less sound bites - more ideas.”

Already being fairly active on Jaiku and Facebook, I began to wonder which might fall next. I don’t think either will wane for me in the near term. They’re quite different. Facebook is becoming a community for me. Overlapping friends in different circles. Jaiku has become my “life stream in the moment,” a different space that Twitter was or Facebook is likely to ever become.

I’ve realized that for me, mobility is vital. I need tools that work from my handheld. I’m doing some testing of a new Jaiku client for the Nokia S60 phones; in my case the N-series. It will be coming soon. I don’t know when. I can’t talk about it much at this point, but when I can, I’ll share info and screen shots.  Let’s just say it’s a leap forward and my primary tool for in-the-moment, stream-of-consciousness sharing of my status. Beyond that, it’s my aggregated life stream from here, VOX, Realtime, Flickr, blip.tv and anywhere else.

Facebook encompasses a broader community for me. And the new applications are sometimes of interest. Add to that, it does the mobility piece very well, and Facebook remains as a somewhat central part of the glue in my social network.

You’ll find me in all the usual places, but the sound bites and noise deter from the value of ideas and thoughtful endeavors that are more meaningful to me.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, Jaiku, Facebook, social networking, sound bites, ideas, signal-to-noise

Filed by Ken at 1:11 pm under Tech in General, Technology, Unified Communications