Twitter is the new anti-metaverse
May 2nd, 2008 |
The universe found within virtual worlds like Second Life is often referred to as “the metaverse.” People act out an online role through an avatar, and interact with others, in the metaverse. Some represent themselves or their organizations in a “real life” or professional capacity, but most are engaged in fantasy role playing.
Twitter has many similar characteristics, but the veneer provided by the avatar and the identity is either totally transparent or non-existent.
Each character in the anti-metaverse, like those in any either online scenario, has a name, a personality, a sense of humor, accomplishments, failures, philosophy, morality and all the things that make up a real person, except we only see glimpses in 140-character increments. It doesn’t take long though to get a fairly well-rounded picture of a whole, complex, and often interesting person.
On Twitter, people talk about what they are doing, both in their professional lives, mentioning they have an “important client presentation today,” or about trivial, personal experiences, like announcing “pizza’s here!” I used to despise the trivial updates, but I’ve come to recognize these as an important part of the complex social rituals that humans have practiced for millions of years as they decide who to interact with and who to avoid.
I don’t use Twitter to “build my personal online brand.” I use it to meet and converse with interesting people. As the ancient philosopher Popeye said, “I yam what I yam and that’s all I yam!” If you don’t like me in real life, you won’t like me on Twitter.
Unlike the metaverse, you can step out of the anti-metaverse at any moment, and become instantly real, without changing your identity. Yesterday, a Twitter friend tweeted “I’m bored. Anyone have any projects they need help with?” I needed immediate help with a research project, so I sent her a message, and we were off and running, with the project completed and payment made in two hours. This is a person I had never met and had never spoken with.
How could I hire a stranger to work on an important project? Simple. I knew enough about her from Twitter to be confident she could do the work. Her authentic behavior in the anti-metaverse told me she was intelligent and articulate. When we briefly stepped into the real world, I quickly confirmed this. And her work was outstanding.
The most valuable social networks, and the most valuable contacts within those networks, are based on trust. Most of my Twitter friends are people I have never met in person and with whom I had no connection prior to Twitter. Twitter provides exactly the right environment in which to build trust.
There are certainly all kinds of people on Twitter, and many who are spammers, con artists, troublemakers and liars. I’m not naïve, just optimistic, and my experience so far has shown that my optimism is not misplaced. I’m also not saying Twitter, or any online experience, is a substitute for the real real world. Of course it’s important to shut down the laptop, get outside, read, relax, chat with friends.
Twitter is the fluid intermingling of real life and online life, and the line continues to blur. It’s already starting to feel odd to say “on Twitter” vs. “in real life,” because sometimes there’s little or no difference. Welcome to the new anti-metaverse.
Tags: twitter, anti-metaverse, metaverse, second life
| Sphere This |
The one thing that I, like, really LIKE about Twitter is that it simultaneously forces and compels one to be super brief and not go on and on using long words and stuff (yet still speak the English unlike txt or teh 133t). I think it’s like wicked cool that you have to limit your tweets to one hundred forty characters or letters or whatever because I totally think alot
of PR People, like myself, who happens to be a PR person, tend to not be brief and like go ON and ON especially in news stuff-ish things about technical doo-dads — ZOMG and after the lawyers get
ahold of it??? where brevity — or being, like, really *concise* is one of the things we got taught first and foremost. In college and I think in high school too I might have possibly been taught that. Plus they make us put all the jargon in the lede where I’m all like, dude, you have just done nothing but string a set of technical arachnids (sp?????) together and this totally makes no sense to normal people who, like, buy cellies and stuff. (BTW, how did “cellie” get to be slang for mobile? I always thought the “cellie” was your jail roommate after you got busted on South Padre for flashing your kitten-feeders to get beads.)
To quote Strump & White: “Omit needless words.” Twitter is great practice for improving writers.
PS — Agree re: the transparency. It’s my life and I am who I say I am. What happens, happens. The details of a new job at a strange place might appear trivial to some people, but having somewhere about which I can post my little observations means a lot thse days.
Comment by Sue Radd — May 2, 2008 @ 9:07 pm
Twitter FORCES authenticity and transparency, because there’s no room for masks or the things that obscure who we are.
Each update is a slice of us - a sliver of a facet. And like the thinnest of slices, you can see right through it.
Less becomes more.
Comment by Ike — May 3, 2008 @ 7:49 am
Joel, I agree completely. Twitter feels very much like real life to me, but in nice manageable bite-size pieces. It’s easy to tell, after just a few Tweets, if someone is worth your time to follow them. Some folks are worth following but they Tweet too much so you have to unfollow — and others are so interesting to read that you wish they’d Tweet more! I am constantly finding interesting new people to follow and cool new Twitter-related tools to try. It’s absolutely my favorite social media tool for now. Until the next cool thing comes along.
Comment by Lara Kretler — May 3, 2008 @ 9:53 pm
[...] “How could I hire a stranger to work on an important project? Simple. I knew enough about her from Twitter to be confident she could do the work. Her authentic behavior in the [Internet] told me she was intelligent and articulate. When we briefly stepped into the real world, I quickly confirmed this. And her work was outstanding. The most valuable social networks, and the most valuable contacts within those networks, are based on trust. Most of my Twitter friends are people I have never met in person and with whom I had no connection prior to twitter. Twitter provides exactly the right environment in which to build trust.”(Joel Postman: twitter is the new anti-metaverse) [...]
Pingback by How twitter can help your small business | P2W2 blog — May 20, 2008 @ 4:47 am
Good article. Thanks for sharing!
Comment by Ted Thompson — April 26, 2010 @ 2:23 pm