Earthquake Creates Twitter Spurt, So What?

The recent Southern California minor earthquake caused a flurry of tweets in the twitterverse.  This is what it looks like on a Twitter-graph.

Twitter, the micro-blogging or social messaging service (SMS) has been embraced by communication's early adopters but hasn't spread in terms of mainstream acceptability yet.  In fact, according to Wikipedia, Twitter has only 2,200,000 users.

Furthermore, it's proven somewhat (how's that for diplomatic?) unreliable by users. Thus 'serious updaters' have remained uneasy and investigate other services and options for universal status updates.  (See - Read Write Web's Six Ways to Update Your Status.)

Although Twitter has been talked about frequently at Digital, many unconverted still think of it as a narcissistic, time-wasting, pointless, squandering of words.  They are of the "who cares what I'm doing right now?" camp.  Prudent Christians think carefully about stewardship issues and where we invest our time is important. 

But bear with us here at Digital.  Twitter can be a bit of a surprise.  It has an unexpected way of creating links, forging bonds, developing certain degrees of intimacy and spawning mini-communities.  And when it comes to the Church, that may make micro-messaging hugely important.

Micro-blogging has hidden attributes that we are just now discovering.  Take, for example, the recent Los Angeles' shaker.  When the earthquake hit, I was sitting at my desk with 2 computers up - one on a twitter page.

I saw a trusted friend in my area of SoCal say in a tweet - earthquake.

I shifted everything I was doing to pay attention and look for a confirming tweet.

I received one within 5 seconds from another friend - about 60 miles away.

I observed multiple confirmations within 10 seconds, all from SoCal locals.

I, myself, began reporting from my location via tweets.

I began checking in with my network of twittering friends since my phone lines were down.

I began answering tweets from worried twitter friends across country.

I realized my network of locals was the most immediate & accessible source of info.

I had 10 people add me as a twitter connection within hours.

I predicted that twitter might be as news-worthy as the earthquake.   

LA Times next day twitter coverage.

You can follow my journey by simply going to my account (http://twitter.com/cynthiaware/) and scrolling backwards. 

This incident galvanized my feelings about Twitter - it's not about the news; it's about people.  It's about relationships; it's about who connects to who.  When do those connections happen and when are they the most meaningful.  It seems that in little episodes of micro-connecting, relationships are created. 

Increasingly, as the relationship economy emerges, our networks of trusted "friends" will grow more vital.  The communication tools we use to support them, whether email, cell calls or tweets, have inherent value.  Maybe, as prudent Christians, we will change our view from time spent online to time invested.

-- Cynthia Ware, The Digital Sanctuary

Comments

[Ben Eige]

I was definitely following your Twitter feed that day, mostly cause I was glad I don’t deal with SoCal earthquakes anymore (although I miss a lot of other aspects of Cali…). Anyway, more to your point on the connectivity of Twitter, I’m seeing it take off in my church as we get folks on the Twitter bandwagon. I was hearing exactly the complaints you mention, “Who cares what I’m doing?” But in community, we all care. Not that you just went #2, but where you’re traveling, how work is going, what interesting things you’re reading or discovering online. In just a few weeks I’ve gotten to know several people much better through Twitter. And when we’re talking face to face it’s a stimulus for conversation so the relationships expand beyond 140 characters! On a professional level, I’ve made connections through Twitter that are allowing me to take trips and get insider access to churches and leaders that would have never happened any other way. Because of email and Twitter I’ve gained an incredibly valuable mentoring relationship and been able to create a mini-conference for me and my team at one of the most dynamic churches in the country. Twitter has opened the door for face-to-face relationships across the country. Anyway, good stuff.

@BenEige

[djchuang]

Cynthia, great observations and connecting-the-dots on how Twitter is connecting-the-people everywhere!

When Twitter connects people better than downed phone lines, I'm starting to speculate when Twitter will be declared a public utility!? And, when and if it does, that'll sure help with funding, though not with taxes. :)