One of my favorite Twitter apps is, without a doubt, twistory, that charming site that shows a live feed of random Twitter messages filtered using an emotional keyword: “I believe”, “I feel”, “I hate”, etc. Despite the fact that most people who look at twistory immediately comment on just how much drivel is contained in Twitter and other similar social networks, I’ve noticed that most people can’t seem to take their eyes off of it for a few long minutes. It’s just interesting in a new and bizarre way. It’s also far more interesting than just looking at your own Twitter timeline for some reason.
There is something fascinating and voyeuristic in listening to countless unknown human beings share their emotions. Sometimes it’s superficial thoughts such as “I Hate Homework”. Other times it’s more significant thoughts such as “sleep well grandma, i love you forever”. One interesting choice made by twistory is that it doesn’t show user names. The messages shown on the screen are anonymous, which somehow makes it even more mysterious.
In a way, this is the closest I’ve seen to the notion of the greenish computer screens we saw on The Matrix — a computerized view showing you “humanity” as a whole. If that sounds overly dramatic when you look at twistori, imagine what this concept might evolve into in the future: a summary of the real time trends and highlighted messages from millions of people around the globe, filtering out the repetitions.
Drivel or no drivel, this is one capability we just didn’t have 10 years ago, or even two years ago, before Twitter!