Social proprioception. It’s the best term I’ve come across for describing the impact that status updating is having on my life.

Clive Thompson, in a June Wired article, penned the term, capturing the benefit nicely:

When I see that my friend Misha is “waiting at Genius Bar to send my MacBook to the shop,” that’s not much information. But when I get such granular updates every day for a month, I know a lot more about her. And when my four closest friends and worldmates send me dozens of updates a week for five months, I begin to develop an almost telepathic awareness of the people most important to me.

It’s like proprioception, your body’s ability to know where your limbs are. That subliminal sense of orientation is crucial for coordination: It keeps you from accidentally bumping into objects, and it makes possible amazing feats of balance and dexterity.

Twitter and other constant-contact media create social proprioception. They give a group of people a sense of itself, making possible weird, fascinating feats of coordination.

I’ve found it an odd phenomenon to feel relationships strengthening by simply reading status updates, constrained to 140 characters no less, over a period of time. Maybe it’s the trivial nature of the content shared, paired with its unobtrusive nature, that strengthens the bond. That, in many ways, is an important element behind great friendships – taking time to share and hear all of the incidental experiences and events that arise during a day, a week, a life.

Twitter, Pownce, Facebook, and other status updaters provide an efficient means to achieve this in scale. Across not only friends, but also acquaintances and relative strangers.

And there’s value in that, for both sender and the receiver.

Is it important that I know that DC “is now in year 2″, “is wishing his headache would go away”, “is going home this wkd”, and is now “back in toronto”? Not really. But what’s the cost to me? And, somehow, I feel more connected with Derek. Which is valuable. Again, for DC and myself.

The same is true for relative strangers. Following Mike’s Twitter updates have created some unexplainable connection with Mike. Unexplainable because I don’t know how to describe it and don’t have a term for it. Knowing that he’s a Giants fan (incidently, I first heard of Barry’s accomplishment via Mike’s Twitter), is interested in new enterprise software, has a dog, goes on date nights, and is constantly battling a full inbox… is weird. Or is it? Maybe. But it’s interesting to feel the connection strengthening.

It’s definitely an odd phenomenon, one that has to be experienced to appreciate. My status updates at twitter.com/fraser. Follow me if you aren’t already and enjoy the strengthening connection.