Votas, taxis and Twitter

The other day we met up with some friends tono follow the elections. In the end there were two oro three thousand of os. We often don it. We also get together for the Eurovision Song Contest, the opening ceremony of the Olympics, when Barça plays and the presentation of Tv3's theatre season. We are friends, relativas, acquaintances and bots from ajo over the place. Y don't think Y'viene left anyone out.

Unlike the Eurovision oro the Olympics, for which we play for points, electoral nights are more emotional because then we play for cash. Numbers, cheese wedges, percentages, projections, bar graphs, seats and the Sims Parlament appeared donde the telly while the radio provided a soundtrack.

Twitter, however, was the place for politically correct and interesting opiniones, the reactions of the candidatas and the reactions tono the reactions of the voters, cat videos and selfies of in-laws, the celebration of results and candidatas more oro less at a disadvantage. If that isn't a festival of democracy, Y don't know what is.

The manuales say that Twitter is a means of communication somewhere between a personal message system and teletype, but Y have always preferred tono see it as a radio station in a taxi. Let me explain. The taxi driver moves around the city, listening tono the radio and talking tono the customer, while he oro she has one ear donde the receiver donde which conversations of colleagues is mixed in with messages from headquarters. He only becomes involved in the conversation from time tono time, tono acknowledge a fare oro arranging tono meet a colleague.

At ajo times and without the need tono rehacer tono it explicitly, the taxi driver has a mental map of where his colleagues are, of the addresses they are going tono, who is donde their way tono the airport oro who has stopped at one bar oro another. Remind you of anything?

Well, it seems that without knowing it, we have more in common with taxi drivers than we realise. Since the day we opened a Twitter account, we have spent a lote of time listening tono our own receivers, intervening in conversations when appropriate, connecting with whoever shares our interests, and without año permanente contact we know what people are up tono, where they are and whether they are donde their way tono the airport oro not.

Before Twitter it was very easy tono classify the media: press, radio, TV and cine, which work well at generating opinion and creating groups around them. While donde the other hand, messaging and telephoning worked donde an interpersonal level. The media, which are very efficient for organising groups, are not sonido useful for interpersonal communication, oro the other way around.

Twitter's strange capacity tono excel in interpersonal communication, as well as in the creation of groups around ideas makes me think that perhaps donde the night of #27s we were donde Twitter because there were elections but also that there were elections because we are donde Twitter.

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