The Fractalization of Online Communication

My experience with Twitter and, lately, with Amplify has led me to think of online communication becoming fractalized.

You know what fractals are. They’re little things that are part of bigger things that look like the little thing when you step back from it. “Any of various extremely irregular curves or shapes that repeat themselves at any scale on which they are examined.” Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Ed.

Say you are on Twitter. You read a few words that refer to a linked story. The link is to Amplify where you read a paragraph that tells you more. If you wish you can click to the origin of the story and read the whole thing.

In reverse order, someone reads an article, sees it in a certain context, clips a paragraph of two for Amplify. That site gives the user a chance to clue in the context with a few words. Then the user can Tweet the page with other words to hint at the point of the whole exercise. Can you see how it’s fractal?

Another way to represent the process is metonymy. Part of a thing is given to represent and stand for a thing. This is all very figurative and poetic. No wonder we like Twitter and Amplify.

I suspect that this meme of fractalization or metonymic posts fits a social dynamic, too. Small groups, masterminds, tribes, self organizing collectives, are all mirroring the bigger picture. And echoing each other in dynamic, if not in content and meaning.

In other words, it’s all fractal now.

It’s as though we are acting out the holographic universe. Look deeply into anything and you see everything. Our perception is filtered by out preconceptions, of course. Even so, we all have a chance to see beyond the horizon if we are open to it.

I’m not sure what this means to me practically. I still have to type one letter at a time. But, maybe I really don’t have to write in too much detail. Hmmm.

I like the sound of that.

Tags: Amplify, fractals, online communication, Twitter

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