Orange Shirt Guy

Background: about a month ago, I had lunch with a good friend.  One of the topics of conversation included being social and being e-social.  She noted that there were many things that she didn't care to read about her friends updates (this was more twitter related), but this got me thinking about social relationships -- and the e-type versus real life type.

And then that furthered my thinking about personal interactions and caused me to articulate the Big Question:  "Was I using Facebook and Twitter as a simple and easy, but perhaps not soundly founded way to have conversations and personal interaction?"

You know how it is.  The difference between sitting across from someone, looking in their eyes, seeing their non-verbal communication versus e-social where one fills in the missing gaps with either one's best guess or best hope.

And that is why I went on a FB Fast.

And here is some of what I found (in very general terms).  Since all of my Facebook Friends are people that I've seen before, the gaps that need filled are smaller and more reasonable - in this context, e-relationships are relatively reasonable.  The Twitter Friends are with very limited exception, people that I've never met face to face . . . and therefore the filling of the gaps are all from my experiences and have very little to do with them.

Lodge.  This is the word that keeps entering my mind.  On vacation in Alaska about five years ago, we were in a Lodge that had a Great Room, Rocking Chairs on the Porch, and a Dining Hall.  And what I discovered then that these three physical areas were catalysts to community, to conversation, to personal interaction.

So, where to go from here? re: Twitter, I think that I'll probably stop or drastically reduce the number of people that I follow (around a hundred now to perhaps around 10 in the near future).  Re: Facebook, I'm not sure.  But, as it has a foundation from the past, I am leaning toward it being a e-catalyst toward community.