Here is what I meant and don't leave me hanging....

So yesterday I posted what I thought was a fairly innocuous sentiment that I had namely, that Twitter was now more important to me than my inbox. I was a bit taken aback at  - let's just say the tenor of the responses I got. I was politely asked for more detail on that statement (which I haven't yet really provided) and I was also told that I needed "perspective" - I actually asked for more detail on that last one but haven't gotten it yet.

I did want to explain a bit further since those comments really made me think a bit more about the statement. My thinking goes something like this...my Inbox has always been important but from Day One, its importance has not increased. I still get tasks, attachments, requests...all the same stuff I have always gotten in my Inbox since the beginning. Twitter on the other hand, started out wwaaaayyyyyy down below the Inbox in terms of relevance to my work, to my professional development, to staying connected with my peers...but that trend line took a hockey stick-shaped turn north for me about 6 months ago.

Now I just came back from a conference. I can only access my work email via a Citrix client on one laptop using a CAC (Common Access Card)..so during the day, I really wasn't able to see my work email. I didn't really experience any great sense of loss. I was however, checking my Twitter stream constantly throughout the day and updating when possible. Why? Why was the latter more important to me than the former? Maybe its something to do with the just the psychological impact of the phrasing - people "follow" you on Twitter...that feels like it carries some responsibility to be follow-worthy...to give something back to your asymmetric community. I certainly don't feel any community coming out of my inbox.

Maybe its the more near real-time aspect of Twitter. If there is a dynamic of asymmetric follow in twitter then email has a corollary dynamic of something like a temporal asymmetry. That is there is now definite match between your timeframe and the people sending you email.

So as my inbox importance has stayed flat, Twitter's has risen and in some cases, eclipsed the Inbox.

I also knew that people could call me...;-)

follow moehlert at http://twitter.com

Comments

[Mike Lambert]

Geez, Mark - if you LOVE Twitter that much, why don't you just MARRY it??

[Clark Quinn]

I have 8 tabs from twitter this morning; don't get that kind of 'check this out' from email. Nice to hear what friends like you are doing/thinking. Not sure it's more 'important' than email ($$ tend to be tied to email, not tweets, it occurs to me), but feeling more 'immediate', in the sense of being there in my consciousness.

[mark oehlert]

(This comment posted on behalf of Dave Ferguson)

Mark, I think Twitter (and especially the tendency of its advocates to talk about it so much) has a significant bright-shiny-object aura. That's common to (relatively) new tools; they're taken up by early adopters, and then by early imitators.

(I'm not saying those are the only taker-uppers... this is freeform musing and not in any way a criticism of you.)

You kindly replied to my own request for detail, and I thought your answer made sense, as does the longer explanation here. Your InBox is a constant; Twitter is like a collection of mini-connects.

One way I think of it is as a virtual amble down the hallways of the workplace. You tend to run into people you've got some history with, or are building some with, or may end up doing so in the future.

My own tweets have not quite hockey-sticked, but it sounds as though your pattern is somewhat like the one I posted on my blog.

I'm finding more appreciation of these mini-connections (like mine with you) while remaining aware that I have to manage the amount of time I spend on them. I can't outsource going to the gym, and I can't tweet my way into shape.

[John Zurovchak]

I all with you! I can leave my Inbox for days...weeks...no problem. Twitter and Facebook - much more difficult due to the community aspect that you mentioned. In addition, I would agree with you that the people I enjoy the most on both of these social networking tools are those that feel the need to be "worthy" of the community. My Inbox helps me to manage my daily workload - my Twitter account helps me to make breakthroughs in thinking and learning. I enjoy the latter much more and feel it is more germane to my development as a person and a professional.

Just my 2 cents...

JZ