Twitter is Making Me Smarter

One thing that I have notice since using Twitter is that it is making me smarter (or at least more informed).

Via Twitter, I have been introduced to some really insightful comments, blog postings, and articles related to my research interests that I would not have seen if it had not been for Twitter. Folks that I follow are posting links (along with comment!) on a wide array of really interesting and thought provoking articles that I can then leverage for my own research, that cause me to think differently, or inform me of something that I did not know of previously. It is really insightful! Some of these tweets come from folks that I see occasionally in person, and others are from folks that I have never personally met but have read their blogs or published works.

Listservs, blogs, Webpages, email, etc. offer some similar benefits. However, these other forms of communication have conceptual differences that make them less effective for making me smarter.

What makes Twitter so much better than these other mediums? I really believe that it’s the combination of two factors – short message and selectivity of channels. The 140 character limit is a near perfect snippet for information processing. Notice that a standard tweet (or micro-blog) is close to the average length of an English sentence or the average length of a newspaper title and by line? The short message is key to information processing.

Also, since I can select to follow or remove folks, I have a high-level and simple method for filtering incoming information. I can select the channels that I find valuable and remove the ones that are more costly or of little value. The short message and the selectivity of channels are classic factors for an attention economy.

Now, is Twitter making me smarter or just more informed? We can split hairs here, but I believe that it would just be an academic exercise, as the outcome and implication are the same. I have the opportunity to accomplish more of what is important to me. There is the concept that the influx of new thoughts, opinions, and information increases the influence of individuals.