The internet has brought us a lot of things that are new. Perhaps the most significant change is in how information is shared, and how the different tools created to share it have altered our basic means of relating to our fellow humans. How the internet is replacing traditional social interactions with new means of how we talk to, do business with, trade, insult, entertain, humour, mock, flirt, and even seduce each other.
As someone who has been using computer networks to communicate ideas and opinions since 1980, I've used many of the different platforms or formats that have come along. From early pre-internet computer games with students in other universities in Canada, to the old listserves (alt.rec.barney.purpledinosaur.die.die.die was a fave), early Compuserve User Forums where I would dial up to a 514 area code and run scripts downloading and uploading messages to other beer and scotch aficionados, to more modern email (originally my Compuserve number account) then to a IP internet account email, web based email, and then to the more modern forums, Winelover's Digest, Wine Therapy, HomeBrew Digest, and so on.
Then came real advances with social media applications hitting the stage, including dating sites begun to meet the needs of the shy and lonely, that now account for many couples finding Mr. or Ms right, at least for 30 minutes.
It was Facebook of course that really changed things. From a site based on simple high school mentality for high school kids, it has advanced to a site based on simple high school mentality for everyone. Complete with a huge repository of personal information, all apparently owned by FaceBook. Even our parents are on there (not mine, thank God). I deactivated my FaceBook account 6 months ago, and I DON'T MISS IT. Really, Picasa does a better job of sharing photos, and I am sure there is an even better photo sharing site out there.
Two years after Facebook came Twitter, which is as aptly named as, say that silly search engine thing called, what was it? Google? is what has us witnessing a new way of communicating with others. The best things in life are truly simple. Butter on fresh baked bread. A toasted marshmallow. Insert thing 1 into thing 2. All good. All easy.
With Twitter, all you need to do to play is to sign up and have at least one other friend on there already to talk to, and to steal followers from. At first, there is a lull. A big let down - what use is this? A waste of time. And being limited to only 140 characters per post is sometimes a pain, if you are into severe angst over why your latest boyfriend got caught with porn pics of you on his computer by his wife.
The secret lies in something I suspect is a very basic, built-in factor in the human psyche related to how many people are members of your follow/follower Twitterverse - your community. The Greeks had a word for the critical number of people it took to bring together to create an effective community. The called it a "Polis". Within that community there would be enough expertise to do anything, answer any question, and, yes, defend itself from other, more agressive "Poli".
Now, that word, Polis, has a lot to do with a word we use and abuse on a regular basis in our lives. Politics. Politics is a big word in our society, with a lot of different meanings. Social politics, sexual politics, heck, political politics. They all matter to us, in varying degrees of importance.
Once I had reached about 200 followers, and was following about 250, I started to see new things happening. I was being exposed to a lot of "tweets", that were "re-tweeted" by someone I was following that made me think harder about something, be amazed about what someone else in the world was doing, or simply made me laugh out loud. I started to find out about things happening in my city long before they appeared in the traditional media. It was as if I'd reached the beginnings of my own "Polis" - my Brewnoser Twitteropolis.
I now have met a fair amount of my "tweeps" in person. Unlike Facebook, which is simply a cataloguing and track-keeping tool for people you already know, or barely know, or might be related to, Twitter somehow transcends the impersonal, to encourage the personal. "Tweet-ups" are common in Halifax - real people meeting in person to continue their on-line discussion, debate, business, or friendship. Despite the lack of photo galleries, relatives, networks, and the like, it is so much more human than Facebook will ever be.
I plan on keeping my "Twitteropolis" trimmed to people who are interesting, or are local, keeping me more in touch with my community than any politician knocking on doors or cutting ribbons. My community is a big amorphous source of entertainment, information, and innuendo that is usually current, sometimes silly, and never boring. I look at some of those celebrity twitter feeds (they don't follow back, so they really are just a feed) and I think of them as a Polis gone wrong, gotten too large and out of hand, like one of those third world 20 million population cities with 40% slums, a sort of social development cancer. I'll just stick to my small town. Where I know everyone.
I am going to resist the temptation to try to monetize my Twitter account too, and only use it for things that are personal. But who knows, maybe it will become a source of work related information. It already has in some small ways, and it certainly works well that way for others. That won't necessarily be a bad thing, work is part of the human condition, after all, and Twitter better reflects the human condition than anything I've yet seen online in the 30 years I've been here.
I can be reached at @brewnoser I may not follow back, I may block you. But I will check before I do either.
