Can Someone Explain Facebook/Twitter?

[Shara]

When I first moved here I used facebook to join several moms groups so I could meet new people and socialize myself as well as my daughter.

Today, through Facebook, I found out that one of my friend's daughter died because of H1N1. I would not have found out about this through any other means. I do not get together with her (or the group) very often because I'm in school full time and she's been dealing with a very sick child. But today I was able to find out within ours of her darling daughter passing. I was able to (like, literally, hundreds of others) share my sorrow and my sympathy with her and let her know that she was not alone and her daughter was loved. I would not have known her or her duaghter if it wasn't for facebook.

I use facebook to play scrabble with my mom every day even though she lives in a different province.

I find my school friends online so that I can ask them when an assignment is due or if they want to swap essays for review.

I find out how my sister is doing in her classes and how my niece is.

I find friends that I knew in Japan or Chile but either lost their email or never had it.

Through other friends I find out about other mutual friends.

I have reunited with people I knew in elementary and secondary school.

I find out about promotions, heartbreak, losses, random thoughts and more.

And I love it. I don't think it's egocentric to care about what is happening in other people's lives or to want to share about your life through an electronic means.

What is the difference if I come here and post a thread entitled "my dog is sick and needs to go to the vet" or if I post it on facebook? The only difference is here I chat with strangers, there I chat with friends. I'll get pretty much the same responses.

People use it in different ways. It doesn't mean that all people are the same. Some people spam on it just like on forums.

Bottom line... it's a networking site.

Twitter I don't really use that much. i have a few 'followers' for my etsy business but that's about it.

ETA: Facebook is not about eliminating oral or face-to-face contact. It's about networking in general. I have joined local biking groups on it (haven't gone yet but will...) I have met people through my mom's group and we go out for coffee when we can. We also exchange ideas about events/festivals/movies/etc. that we can take our kids to. We talk about sales and more. And then we go out and do it.