This is all new to me. A year ago, I had just joined Facebook and MySpace to help promote my first novel, Four Wives. I had a website as well. It was incredibly strange to have so much of me out there for the world to see, and yet I came to appreciate the ability to find long lost friends. In this past year, I have had closure with three former boyfriends and “friended” countless people I knew in college and high school. One of these reconnections has resulted in an awesome joint venture on film projects. Every time these things happen, I am struck by the power of these vehicles to connect the world.

And yet … I am “friends” with many people I have never met and probably never will meet. Every day, I hear about their thoughts as they’re cooking dinner or how messy their car is after a massive playdate for their kids. I learn about their favorite restaurants and even tiffs with their spouses. It is personal, and yet impersonal. Intimate and yet a click away from disconnection. How are we to process this?

Twitter is the latest craze and good god, it is a monster! I can now catch up with hundreds of people while siting in my bed late at night. I can find out what they did all day or how they feel about swine flu or the state of the economy. I learn about their anxiety over a dinner party the next night or maybe the start of a new relationship. I know about their kids and what happened to them at school or on the playground. And I get to know all of this without seeing or even talking to them. 

And they can know about me. I have had so many moments in my life where I’ve thought “I wish someone could see this!” like the time I managed to juggle a live radio interview while folding laundry and talking to my kids via post-it notes under my door. Or those countless times when they were babies and being incredibly cute or maybe not, maybe incredibly awful and I was wondering how much more I could take before the day was over. We have all had those moments, and now instead of wishing someone could witness them with us, we can pop on Twitter, post it and have instant feedback. From strangers!

I’m not sure what I think about this. Maybe I should have titled this entry “I have no lucid thoughts on Twittering.” Some days I am grateful for the connection with the outside world. Other days I feel even more disconnected from the world because my real world friendships seem diluted by the hundreds of cyber space contacts. I imagine my children will not have any ambivalence. They will come of age with texting and Twittering and Facebook. I wonder sometimes what their relationships will be like as a result. Maybe better because they will be able to find like-minded people wherever they may be. Or maybe worse because they will be so busy on the internet that they’ll never leave their apartments. How many books have been written on this topic? Can anyone agree? Can anyone really make a prediction?

I am curious what other people think about this. Even people I have never met. Leave me a comment and I’ll be sure to “friend” you!

Wendy

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