Twitter and Community

When a friend of mine pointed me to check out this video. I think he was trying to make a point to me as I tend to give people a daily account of my life with my twitter. Its facinating to see how a website that limits the updates to only 140 words or less. It is a fun activity trying to sum up your thoughts in a quick and to the point fashion. Yet, I think this video highlights something that is more foundational than people having the need for atttention. I think social media sites like Facebook and Twitter help fullfill the need that people have for community or having people around them. It may not seem exactly like that they acomplish this goal but those sites help people feel like they belong to one another and I think that can be a good thing. For instance, I am "friends" with several people whom I've known for years which we are truly friends but others are ones that I have met at parties or casual functions, so it is hard to classify us as friends. But yet it is helpful in the building process because you can see what interests or hobbies other people have, but also you can see more to the person than what you encountered when you met them in person.

Still, I think this humor filled look at the life of twitter can be a good reminder for us all. We need face to face friendships and not just ones that are online. There is something to be said about spending quality time with people outside the sphere of tweets and wall posts, it helps people grow closer in ways that twitter and facebook will never achive.