We are 98.4% Chimps by DNA. We are 100% primate.
All primates use grooming to keep the group relationships healthy.
Dunbar suggests that Humans used gossip as an extension of grooming. This he believes is the origin of language and it is why the Dunbar numbers drive healthy groups 2- 5 - 8 -15 - 35 - 150 because each of these groups has a relational boundary.
This is what Twitter does for me. Just as language enables the Human group to expand the grooming distance from direct contact to the range of the voice and as it allowed the release of both hands to do work - so Twitter allows me to expand the distance of Conversation/Gossip (Grooming) to the world and because the field is so small - 140 characters - it keeps to gossip and hence is a very light load on my poor old brain.
For humans Touch = Conversation/Gossip
It is not the search for the meaning of life, to build a new product or business that builds the bonds but the mundane about Dave Pollard's underwear preferences (You had to be there and I am not telling)