Twitter Lights Up the World

Screen shot 2013-02-03 at 6.25.31 PMI came across this on the internet the other day and I thought it was really

interesting

cool

awesome.

A web designer, using a map of the world, displays a bright pixel for EVERY tweet, as it happens. When you open the page, the world is basically dark. But as the tweets fly, it gets brighter and brighter.

There are bunches of statistics at the bottom of the page, too, and if you are interested in learning more, you can stick around on his website to take it all in.

I just enjoyed leaving the image on my screen and watching as the tweets made the planet brighter and brighter. Remember, it’s dark at first, because the tweets are counted from the moment YOU access the page. The longer you stick around, the brighter it gets.

(When you first open the page, tap the center arrow to drop the statistics down to the bottom.)

Then prepare to be mesmerized as you watch the Tweets light up the world at:

Screen shot 2013-02-03 at 6.55.29 PM Tweetping

36 thoughts on “Twitter Lights Up the World”

  6. This is MAJORLY cool! Also awesome. Thanks for sharing, Kathy. It’s positively hypnotic, and like the others, I am fascinated by the gaping black holes in the world. It’s rather shocking to see what I already know to be true, displayed in such a visible way. As always, you have found something wonderful to share, and it’s much appreciated.

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  9. That was simply just awesome!! You can immediately point out the over-developed areas and the under-developed areas in the world. This is a definite sign of the the disparity amongst people in the world. While Asia and Africa remain in complete darkness, the Americas keep getting brighter and brighter… And you can also spot differences within the various parts of the continent!! It was a really interesting and an enlightening piece of work… Thank you so much for sharing it with us!! 🙂

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    • Your observations are right on… interesting…. and as you said “enlightening”. Clearly shows the disparity in a vivid and kind of hypnotic way. Thank you for your thoughtful comment! 🙂

      Reply

  13. Absolutely fascinating, compulsive viewing… I thought it was fascinating to see the different parts of the continents that were busy… In Asia, Japan and India and Indonesia were full on, as was the UK, France, Belgium Netherlands and that region… and blank spots elsewhere apart from the States… so it isn’t just Africa that isn’t tweeting – large parts of both Europe and Asia.. and elsewhere…
    And how amazing that we can use a technique for talking to measure affluence and poverty!!!

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  14. It is the middle of the night here, and yet people in LA were tweeting like crazy, as were England and Spain. I was surprised that Australia was not because I am usually in conversation with them during the middle of the night hours here. It was also interesting to see actual tweet words flash up. Way too fast to read them, of course, but there they were. I imagine you could do the same thing with emails or blogs. That’s kind of scary that those words are out there for the world to see if you just slow them down and make them bigger. I wonder if Big Brother is monitoring our every thought? Your readers draw interesting conclusions. The other thought that occurred to me was that the lights most represent English-speaking countries, and maybe not as their first language, but having some knowledge of it, but again it goes back to income, most of all. Thanks for sharing. Very cool!!!

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