(This is an aside.)
I have been using a convention on Twitter for the past few months, a bit of microsyntax, and I guess I should spell out my intent.
When I am writing a tweet that is principally focused on me, as a person, I enclose the tweets in parentheses, like this:
(moves desk to standing orientation)
This is intended as information of a personal-but-not-private nature, the sort of thing that might be interesting for those following me as an individual, as opposed to me as a public figure. And yes, I am a public figure, and you are too.
My point in this post isn’t a rehash of the privacy/publicy argumentarium, but just a mild advocacy for the use of the parens for these asides. And the hope that Twitter clients in the near future would allow people to dial in/out the asides intended for the inner circle.
Behind this is the groupings concept: you don’t have to be invited to be a member of my inner circle. It’s not — and really shouldn’t be — controlled by me. It’s a decision that others make: how much does this other person matter to you? If you like someone enough to know when they raise or lower their standup/sitdown desk, or what the weather is from their window, or what kind of sandwich they ordered today, then tune in to their asides.
And those who want to filter out that stuff: please do. I am creating enough social exhaust without it, I am sure.
So: please start using asides, and maybe we can get Twitter clients — maybe even Twitter — to support them, just like they did @mentions, retweets, and #hashtags.
