Twitter lists

When I first started using Twitter, my biggest gripe was the lack of a personal directory. There was no way to organize the people you were following, and often times users who didn't update often got drowned out in the timeline by all the Twitter-powerhouses whose frequency of tweeting knew no scope or bounds. To circumvent this problem, I created a "directory" of "favorites," which was basically a crude, shot-gun way of organization that didn't have the real-time update of each user. In other words, it provided organization, but added an extra middleman of clicking to the equation. But with Twitter lists, this problem now seems to be solved, and I can compulsively and anally organize and categorize my Twitter followers like I do the files on my computer or the clothes in my closet or pretty much anything else in my life that can be compulsively organized.

But what's most interesting about these lists is how they are reorganizing the entire Twitter community from a rhetorical standpoint. Suddenly, you start appearing on random lists that people have created, and you begin to get a more detailed sense of why they follow you and what their perceptions are of you in terms of the world of Twitter. For example, I've noticed that I appear on a "Want to Meet in Real Life" list, which is flattering, and at the same time a bit strange. There is also a "Knew Before Twitter" list, which seems to be a fascinating way of confirming the existence of a person. Others, like "Milwaukee People," are a little less interesting, but nonetheless are an indication that a bunch of people who probably don't know each other are collectively trying to figure out where everyone is located and what they are doing at that very moment. Twitter users were probably always building perceptions of other people in this network long before lists, but now there's a way to flaunt it through digital text and organization.