september brother bill checked world perspective wondered half worried half curious hovering consciousness lives portland illinois surprise aware move past years left parents house college essentially sense life mind random wednesday months july suggested persistent bill signed twitter account posted tweet month gain momentum regularity past month tweeting times leaves tweets describing antics henry tweets concerts movies funny observations neighborhood lots call political venting recently commented short anecdotes favorite thing twitter uncle who's hundreds miles charming nieces surprised bill signed twitter suddenly connected everyday you're connected make point calling phone week month case fell twitter immediately signing love brother what's strange passes update bill case september sort feels world tweeting lying realize makes sense life started micro-blogging describe phenomenon noticed twitter part life friends twitter mentioned sorts illogical real sensations bill back making wednesday posting tweets experienced strange twitter phenomenon jason twitter updates bill directly phone text messages turned function evening meeting forgot turn back times asked questions answer reading tweets eaten lunch question called half hour tweeted eating turkey-swiss sandwich honeycrisp apple fritos fritos remind childhood chip asked productive morning posted mid-morning tweets productive thinking impulse listening felt talking half tuned remembered receiving tweets imagining real information expected threw threw reality friend twitter reads blog knew interested article sunday's york times magazine called brave world digital intimacy finally reading today interesting fascinated concept social scientists call ambient awareness relates scores minutiae posted facebook twitter here's article's author clive thompson explains paradox ambient awareness update individual social information insignificant supremely mundane time snippets coalesce surprisingly sophisticated portrait friends family members lives thousands dots making pointillist painting real world friend bother call detail sandwiches eating ambient information type haley invisible dimension floating everyday life invisible dimension floating everyday life invisible explain people wrapped explain point twitter twitter users type question what's point telling lunch hard bill twitter makes feel live town time kids stuff makes feel stuff knowing lunch hearing quick response latest political news makes feel close 