TIME: Twitter Will Change The Way We Live

Very interesting perspective of Twitter, the inventors Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Jack Dorsey and the future of business. The technology of Twitter and the use of only 140 characters of instant communication in the mundane aspects of our lives, such as "What are you doing?" to the more important topics of the day "Tweet your Congressman and tell him to vote no on Obama's health care disaster."

And yet as millions of devotees have discovered, Twitter turns out to have unsuspected depth. In part this is because hearing about what your friends had for breakfast is actually more interesting than it sounds. The technology writer Clive Thompson calls this "ambient awareness": by following these quick, abbreviated status reports from members of your extended social network, you get a strangely satisfying glimpse of their daily routines. We don't think it at all moronic to start a phone call with a friend by asking how her day is going. Twitter gives you the same information without your even having to ask.

The social warmth of all those stray details shouldn't be taken lightly. But I think there is something even more profound in what has happened to Twitter over the past two years, something that says more about the culture that has embraced and expanded Twitter at such extraordinary speed. Yes, the breakfast-status updates turned out to be more interesting than we thought. But the key development with Twitter is how we've jury-rigged the system to do things that its creators never dreamed of.

In short, the most fascinating thing about Twitter is not what it's doing to us. It's what we're doing to it.

The exhilariation of Edmund Dantes, Prisoner #34 in the Count of Monte Cristo, upon hearing the rapping on the block wall from someone unknown was life-saving. That someone was Prisoner #27, an abstract soul who could relate to Prisoner #34's experiences and emotions.

Instant communication provides an emotional outlet to the average Joe and the talking heads in every industry that gives the user satisfaction and relief in having their voices and opinions heard. Tweeps know someone in Twitterworld will read their words. Reading thousands of tweets let's you know that you're not alone in the world.