There’s an old saying: “Don’t talk to strangers!”
But what about following them on Twitter? According to Joel Johnson, there can be real advantages to following complete strangers online:
One of the best things about Twitter is that, once you’ve populated it with friends genuine or aspirational, it feels like a slow-burn house party you can pop into whenever you like. Yet even though adding random people on Twitter is just a one-click action, most of us prune our follow list very judiciously to prevent tedious or random tweets to pollute our streams. Understandable! But don’t discount the joy of discovery that can come by weaving a stranger’s life into your own.
Beyond the joy of discovery, there may be other advantages. Writing at Wired.com, Jonah Lehrer says that following strangers on Twitter “can actually expand our creative potential.”
For an upcoming episode of Spark, we talked to Joel and Jonah about the upsides of following strangers on Twitter. A shorter version of this story will air on an upcoming episode of Spark, but you can hear Nora’s full, uncut interview with Jonah below, or download the MP3. [runs 22:08]
Play audio:
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One of my favourite iPhone apps is Pen Pal. You write up a message which gets sent to a random person who also has the app installed. It's been fun waiting to see what you get back. So far all good. No Chat Roulette type experiences
This was, but far, the worst segment I've ever hear on the Spark. Up there in the worst I've heard on TV.
Some smug Palo Alto web developer stepping outside his safe little cocoon for five minutes to shower his divine pity on the unwashed masses does not constitute news, journalism, entertainment, or anything other than a disgusting display of white bred ignorance.
The existence of non-white, non-rich people is not news, nor is the fact that they're capable of accessing the internet.
Hello, Tom. Thanks for your comment. Sorry to hear that you didn't like the piece.
You might be interested to read Joel's follow-up piece, in which he addresses many criticisms of his experiment: http://gizmodo.com/5588293/so-this-hipster-tech-d…
Also, it's worth mentioning that the audio posted here isn't the finished radio story. In the final version (expected to air in the coming weeks on Spark), we'll also take a closer look at the research of Charlan Nemeth, who studies the role of dissent in creativity and thought. Her research suggests that simply by being exposed to minority dissenting viewpoints (whether we believe them or not) improves our creativity.
We've had some very positive response to this piece so far. Thanks for providing the (so far) minority dissenting viewpoint. If Charlan is correct, it's good for everyone.
^^^
That should read "CBC," rather than "TV"
oops
Hello,
I heard this aired on spark as I was driving across our beautiful country. Unlike the writer above, I found this segment to be both; incredibly stimulating and encouraging. The research experiment was tantalizing in that by merely speaking with other who oppose my thoughts, opinions and expressions, can assist in the development of each parties creative bents. Anyway, I just wanted a more positive note to be left in defense of this episode – encouraging, interesting, and hopefully others felt as I did after its completion.