Tonight I told a friend how Twitter can be lovely company when you’re alone and bored. That it’s a nice place for the sharing of simple joys and concerns.
Though I’m agnostic, I grew up in a strong, compassionate church community (Congregationalist) in Connecticut that I still feel connected to. A ritual part of church was the weekly sharing of joys and concerns. A simple book lay at the entry to the church. Anyone could add a line, and their words were read for all to hear.
This simple, ordinary sharing of joys and concerns is one of the tremendous human strengths of Twitter and microsharing in general. Both can inspire, especially when the concerns are outside ourselves — not self-indulgent, but concerns for others and for the changes that we can make in the world.
Some mistake “social media” for something “new.” But the most compelling truths I notice in this space are simple ones that echo furthest back in human experience. Humans gather. They share joys and concerns. They hope for one another and try to create better things.
Compelling platforms set conditions for people to replicate these in a natural, accessible way. We shouldn’t kid ourselves that it’s the software.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Beautifully put!
~Laura
Laura – your timing on this post is so interesting. I have a few ‘real life’ friends (friends I know in person) who have started to follow thousands of people. They no longer see my tweets to them. It makes me a little sad that I have been relegated to the masses. I was just lamenting this. You should include this phenomenon to your book. At what point does Twitter move from a personal place to share to a forum of mass media?
Just wanted to say I hadn’t quite looked at it from that viewpoint, but I’d have to agree with you that social networks are not entirely new. People have been using them for many years, we just never invisioned them being used in this way…my how times have changed from our parents and grandparents day.
Great post!
~K