socialmedian: If you don’t “get” Facebook and Twitter, read this NY Times article

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If you don’t “get” Facebook and Twitter, read this NY Times article

Submitted by Robdiana from Google Reader

Sep 08, 2008

Summary

The NY Times is often considered the US newspaper of record, and it lives up to its reputation with an excellent article in today’s Sunday NY Times Magazine about the ambient awareness enabled by Facebook status updates, Twitter and other microblogging tools.

Even readers familiar with both popular microblogging tools and their history should read this article. High points:

Microblogging enables ambient awareness of your broad friendship group:

In essence, Facebook users didn’t think they wanted constant, up-to-the-minute updates on what other people are doing. Yet when they experienced this sort of omnipresent knowledge, they found it intriguing and addictive. Why?

Social scientists have a name for this sort of incessant online contact. They call it “ambient awareness.” It is, they say, very much like being physically near someone and picking up on his mood through the little things he does — body language, sighs, stray comments — out of the corner of your eye.

Ambient awareness comes not from any single tweet or status update, but from the aggregation of the da

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