Why we tweet like we do.

Alan Jacobs, after considering the way in which knowledge of the Bible permeated every part of Victorian culture:

Today, it seems to me, there is no such truly common cultural currency. Instead, there is currency shared among small groups of initiates into certain mysteries, often meant to exclude others as much as to include the like-minded. This is what song lyrics and South Park quotes are for, after all.

When it comes to dropping unexplained references in hopes of picking out fellow insiders, I'm a great sinner, if not the chief. (My only Google Chat status that doesn't fall under this indictment is "lunchtime.") But I suppose another somewhat less plausible -- but surely not impossible -- motivation would be to try to provide your friends little moments of wonder at the unfamiliar.