Tweet

In the last week I started this blog, started Tweeting, hunted down 22+ people to follow on Twitter, subscribed to a Ladies message board that I've read for years and never posted on, and installed programs like Twhirl and TweetDeck. Why?

I'm guessing it's because I am in need of contact, contact, contact. Really? Not sure.

Why do we get addicted to online social networks? Why am I? I'm not the most social person in REAL life. However I do love to study the human ego. And what better way to observe egos than by following individual's thoughts on Twitter.

I can't believe I'm actually jumping in to "social" situations online. I'm usually the person that sits back in a conversation, listens and observe. Then, if you're lucky, I say something I think is profound. If I'M lucky.

What is it about these online networks that frees me to comment on everything from the death penalty to what someone is having for lunch. AND why do we make these comments online? Why did I post today for my Facebook update, "Hope is making brioche buns. Yum." Who really cares?

What's odd is that I love those type of comments when I log in for the tenth time in one day and read that So and So is "enjoying my favorite treat at Starbucks." And I get all warm inside when one of my favorite musicians tells us that he "broke a tooth." Why?

I guess it IS that I want more contact. I am Facebook friends with neighbors and speak or hear from them more through our "walls" than in person...less than ten steps away. I get to hear about Steven Page's breakfast on Twitter. And connecting with old friends from grade school or college is something that I wouldn't otherwise do.

As I get older I think I actually have less contact with my loved ones and friends from the past. And there are less and less people who I involve in my day.

I have less daily contact with people I care about. I do my job, shuttle Chayse from activity to activity, make every meal, and in my free time clean the house. And if I'm lucky, a girl's jacuzzi night happens every other month.

But I am a social being. We have social needs. And it seems all these online social addictions are fulfilling the need.

It's really quite odd to me. This whole Twitter/Facebook phenomenon. The written word and intellectual interaction seems to have been fading with the expansion of TV and cell phone usage. Hell, even newspapers are going down the shitter. But maybe the online social networks and blogosphere are propelling the written word, again. And maybe people are actually engaging again. Fulfilling our social need. In a new way.

Whatever the reason, I enjoy it. And frankly, that's all that matters to me.