Twitter is an amazing tool to catch a glimpse of the collective consciousness. I’ve seen it during the Olympics and I’ve been apart of it at conferences like An Event Apart. Jeremy Keith once said that Twitter was the closest he’d ever come to feeling as though he’s jacked into the Matrix.

Most of us use Twitter to keep in touch with people we know and keep up with things we care about. It makes sense, it’s familiar and comforting but it blocks out people and ideas we disagree with and it ignores some of the most powerful potential of Twitter.

What are we missing by insulating ourselves with the familiar? A recent episode of CBC’s Spark discussed the benefits of following a stranger with Joel Johnson who wrote a Gizmodo article on the topic.

Not only can it help us avoid groupthink but Joel mentions a study that suggests exposure to other view points can make us more creative.

So I had the idea to create a twitter account that will add a random tweet to my feed now and then and when I mentioned it to Daniel he took a few minutes and built it.

You should follow a @perfectstranger on Twitter, and let me know what you think.