piXel mind

When you travel to a new place, you can go to all the tourist spots, stand in a crowd, walk past a zillion locals and still never feel that you connected with the place or its people. Then you climb into a cab, and start talking to the cab driver. Inspite of the fact that there is only one third of a language that you have in common, the conversation proceeds. He talks about the mundane. Tosses in some political commentary. Tells you some history. Points out a place or two. Asks you a question, then another. And this  does something incredible. You find you can now hear the voice of the entire city or even country. It is not just what he says. It is how he says it. And what he does not say.

Trying to learn what is going on during an event by looking at the tweet tagged with the its name, feels a little like standing at a crowded intersection in a strange land, watching the locals stream by in every which direction. But if you pick one of them… yes that one with the easel and the paint smudge and follow him to a gallery or two, then walk into a cafe where he meets his friends, absorb the iffti and then amble along towards the river front. Now, suddenly, you know a little about this land.

When something trends, it is good to have someone to follow who is embedded in that issue that is trending. During the current crisis I just happen to be following someone who is in Japan, and who by his (very limited number of ) tweets is really able to convey what is going on there – both at the personal and community level.

I would be a better world citizen, I think, if for every important (and lets just say that what is important will trend) topic, I am able to find a person or two to follow.