Twitter is just a passing fad. Just like telephones. And indoor plumbing.
I hear this all the time from people who have never used Twitter and don’t understand it. At least, I hear the first part. I may have added the parts about telephones and plumbing.
What these people fail to understand though is that Twitter is about connection and online connections and relationships are as real, valid and meaningful as offline ones.
It is easy to dismiss social networking sites as a craze which will soon die down because they don’t produce anything tangible. In a world where we are used to seeing the products of our labor in physical form, the interconnected communities of the cyber world are, to many, unrecognizable as being ‘real’.
As Important as the Telephone
Social Media will have as big an impact on relationships and community as the telephone has had. The fear is that social media will destroy ‘true’ community by creating a world where everyone sits alone in their homes ‘connecting’ through the internet while physically becoming more and more distant from each other.
The telephone has proved that to be nonsense though. For decades now we have had the ability to instantly communicate verbally with each other through the use of telephones but rather than meaning we get together physically less and less, easy communication through telephones has enabled us to arrange to meet more often and more spontaneously and has kept us connected while we are apart.
This is where social media really shines. Far from destroying community, social media improves it by helping us build and maintain connections. Here are three ways it does so:
- Never being apart. Most of us have many old school friends and work colleagues who we would love to still be in contact with but have ‘lost touch’ with due to the reality of schedules, locations and ‘life’ getting in the way. Social media enables us to reconnect with and stay connected to all of our old friends and requires very little time investment to do so. In a matter of minutes, I can scan through the status updates of hundreds of friends on Facebook, many of whom I either haven’t seen in years or who I’ve never yet met in person. I am more connected today with friends old and new than at any time in the past.
- New connections are easily made. Building relationships in the real world is a slow, time consuming process and there is a limit to the number of relationships you can easily build. Online, however, I can be building relationships with hundreds of people at once with very little time investment. Simply sharing something that I am doing or that has happened to me means that hundreds or even thousands of people can feel that I am sharing directly with them and thus that they are a part of my life.
- It leaves us wanting more. We, as human beings, are naturally sociable. We need face to face interaction, it’s just how we were made. Some of us need that more so than others but, whether we like it or not, to some degree we all need to be around other people at times. Far from replacing physical meetings, social media promotes and facilitates them. I would like to meet every single one of my online friends, whether we have met physically in the past or not. The community feeling of building relationships online is great but it leaves us wanting more, it’s not the be all and end all of relationships. I will probably physically meet with more people because of my social media use than I ever would otherwise – and that is good!
Social Media is Here to Stay
Whether you are using social media for personal reasons or for business, the connections made are real and productive. Social media promotes relationships. It may do so in a new way but those relationships are no less valid or personal than relationships formed in any other way.
The sites we use may change, for instance FriendsReunited has been largely replaced by Facebook, which in turn may be replaced by something else in a few years, but the value in the medium of online connections will not.
Do you agree? Has social media enabled you to connect and reconnect with people you otherwise would be completely disconnected from? Are your online relationships any less real than your offline ones?
I first joined LinkedIn, then FaceBook, then Twitter. Through all three, I have established some extraordinary relationships that, with the addition of e-mail and blogging especially, enrich my life. I use all these means of communication not just to learn about what others are doing but also to promote my business and to share my writing.
What has been particularly wonderful are the various sub-groups in which I've become active: one uses social media to promote peace and other social justice issues, one is oriented to spiritual activities, others focus on a range of art-related interests, another relates to books and poetry, and still another is that extraordinary online group Our Cancer. All require an investment of time and I do not use them frivolously. They do not, however, replace the face-to-face relationships I have.
You're right, nothing can replace face-to-face but social media is a great way to supplement it!
Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
I'm with you and Maureen, Peter. In March, I started blogging and joined Twitter. I had already been on Facebook and LinkedIn for a few months. If you had told me back in March that I would be co-editing an online poetry journal by September, I would have laughed. But that's exactly what happened — along with some incredible new relationships. (You can come visit the journal at http://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/blog.)
The speed at which things change online is incredible. Things I have done online in the last year I would never have believed possible a year ago!
Thank you for so eloquently expressing what I try to convey to people on a regular basis. When I try to explain the richness some online relationships bring to my life, all I get in return is either a skeptical snort or a blank stare. Oh well, they may never know what they are missing. I've never had an issue with peer pressure and I'm not about to start now! Let's carry on, shall we? 🙂
You're welcome!
Let's be the ones giving the peer pressure this time, eh? 🙂
I heart Social Media. Were it not for blogs and Twitter, I wouldn't have my FOTTSP friends I love (present company included Peter!). I've enjoyed Facebook because of old high school and college friends, and even an old baby sitter of mine, finding me and reconnecting. It's been a blast.
However…I work with counselors. The marriage counselers tell me adultery is on the rise with the Christian couples the work with. You know why? People are finding old boyfriends and girlfriends online. That scares me for all of us. Social media can be great, but boy do we need to be extra on-guard with our precious marriages.
Aww, thanks, Marni.
I was just hearing about people reconnecting with old flames online yesterday. As with anything, we must be on our guard. There's always a dark side lurking!
My mom, who knows very little about computers, likened these online relationships to penpals. She had a penpal as a child that she never met personally until they were adults. I agreed with her, but added that we get almost immediate answers from our "penpals", anywhere from minutes to the next day, and can then respond again. She was very impressed.
The penpal analogy is a great one.
It's like penpal relationships on speed!
I agree, Peter! I can't imagine my life without my online friends! My online friends help me stay sane! 🙂
There are SO many comments I could make about that statement 🙂
Twitter has done more to level the playing field and create an egalitarian way of exposing me to inspiration, leadership, and ideas than anything else ever has.
I’m trying to strategize how and when I start repaying the favor without marginalizing myself into irrelevance, but as far as 2009 is concerned, I’m all atwitter about Twitter.
Speaking of online connections, I was supposed to be logged in when I wrote that, dangit.
Lol. I think you're the first person to use the word egalitarian on this blog. I have no idea what it means but I assume you're using it right 😉
You're also probably the first to use 'marginalize' but you made up for it all with the phrase "I'm all atwitter about twitter."
Awesome!
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/egalitaria…
🙂 thanks!
Absolutely right, Peter (although you aren’t likely to find a dissenting opinion among all of us who regularly use and appreciate social media). 🙂
The online relationships do not replace face-to-face social interactions, but I believe they enhance our lives in huge ways. Receiving the encouragement and challenging (not to mention laughter) that I do from my online friends’ blogs and conversations equips me to carry that life and purpose into the everyday with people around me. Honestly, through my blog and online relationships, I feel like I’m more able to be myself (and not just an extremely protected version of myself) in my face-to-face interactions, relationships, and communication (even preaching).
It’s not going anywhere because God can use it for His glory in such amazing ways.
Yeah, my 721 words were wasted because I could have just posted your comment and it says it all 🙂
Thanks, Jason! I'm sure glad we met online!
You’re so funny- I wasn’t saying your words were wasted! It’s good to have the reminders of what we’re really here for- keep it in focus and perspective. You did a great job at that.
I wasn't saying you were saying my words were wasted… you just said it much better than me! 🙂
Thanks, Jason!
Agree! Twitter is why I'm here commenting on your post – so yes, I've made many new connections with social media.
As for real or less real … I think both are real, though maybe slightly different. I met a few people at a conference in Oct that I had met on Twitter in the previous weeks. They were real to me before, but meeting them in person added to the relationship – not sure what, but it did. Maybe because we went out to dinner together, so we connected longer at one time, then I normally do with people online.
There's something about meeting in person that just can't be beaten.
But I'm so glad for social media for giving us the opportunities to meet up like that!
Great article. Social networks are a great boon to communication. They've opened up the world and make it easier for people to find and make friends with like minded people.
If you're single they're a fantastic tool for meeting potential partners without having to face the anxiety of walking into a bar on your own hoping to meet mr or miss right.