open mindedness

March 19, 2007 by  

I’ve been mostly negative about the social network phenomena but I’ve continued to follow the trend. I’m glad I did. My personal preferences were clouding my objectivity and I wasn’t aware of it. Since I’m interested in trends and bridging generations, it serves me, my (p.s.f.)business, and my clients that I be open-minded and insightful about change, even if (especially if!) its change I don’t much like.

I’d never heard of Twitter until today, after reading a great essay by Kathy Sierra and a good overview in the SF Gate: What are people ‘twittering’ about? I’m glad I took the time to read the comments to Kathy’s post. If not, I would’ve 100% agreed with her impression and not added my insight, because, like her, I’m not in the target audience for Twitter and it has zero appeal for me. As always, she provides a balanced and insightful analysis of the behavioral and cognitive impact. But the comments that followed, further broadened my perspective about Twitter, the incredibly bright and talented people who create these communities, and social media phenomena in general.

So the question I’m attempting to answer is: how do we live balanced, happy and purposeful lives in a cognitive-overload world?

My response is: by integrating awareness of states, and moments of stillness, and attention to how we are feeling, into our daily personal and work activities.

Also, I added some renegade insight on the Twitter business model described here.

Perhaps the greatest challenge will be finding a business model for Twitter. Obvious doesn’t have one yet, but Williams isn’t worried. He said he prefers to make sure he’s built a great user experience first, and the business model will follow. “There’s going to be some value if we can do it really well,” he said.

Scoble concurred. “The world has taught me, if you have an audience, a business model will show up. Google demonstrated that. It was in business for four years before it found a business model,” and now it’s a multibillion-dollar company.

The model could be advertising, it could be selling Twitter as a service to companies, and it could find something else entirely.

twitter.gif

Is Twitter TOO good?

(Via Creating Passionate Users.)

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