What Kind of Friend am I?

It is puzzling to me that many people still refer to a subset of my friends as my "Twitter Friends" because I originally connected (and still interact) with them on the social networking platform Twitter.

I've often said that the beauty of Twitter, and what separates it from Facebook and other platforms, is its simplicity and malleability.  With a limit of 140 characters per message, verbosity (and at times depth) is not easy.  But extensions, clever applications and the imagination and critical mass of the twitterverse makes it a very rich tool for communication - and for community.

This offers a flexibility that allows one to utilize Twitter in a very personal way.  Some people have created a large group of "virtual" friends; others connect with people around the globe that they'd be unlikely to meet otherwise or network with their professional peers.  Some just sit back in the virtual shadows and read the flow of posts. Some communicate with friends that they met outside of social media.  Many, including myself, do all of the above.

As a much-too-frequent business traveler, I originally used Twitter, and followed local Baltimore people, as a way of becoming and staying connected to my community.  What I discovered was a richness of social connection that made me a part of this city that I had never been since I moved here 14 years ago.  I don't just chat online.  Whenever I can, I get out and meet people.  I now count my "Twitter friends" as some of my dearest and closest, and my Twitter and non-Twitter social circles now intersect to a great degree.

So when does "Twitter friend" become just "friend"?  And why the distinction?  Do you have a "bar spouse"? Do you work for a "LinkedIn employer"?  Have a "web dog"?  Dating a "supermarket guy"? Hire a "Google electrician"?

What do my "Twitter friends" and I do?  We chat with each other.  We share and debate the news.  We have parties. We make each other laugh - and sometimes cry.  We share food and wine and all that is good in life.  We have disagreements and drama.  We celebrate our triumphs.  We welcome births.  We grieve deaths.

We embrace.

We embrace each other in the same way as any other friendship.  We are a powerful community of friendship and love and if you define us by how we discovered each other, you are missing the point entirely.  We may have met through a network of machines but our relationships are 100% human.  And these relationships are just as complex and wondrous as any other. More so if anything, since we have so many ways to communicate.

I'd like to wish Happy and Warm Holidays to my wonderful Twitter friends, my lovely Internet wife and of course my adorable web cats.

And if you follow me on Twitter, I'd like you to come out and meet me sometime, so we can be just Friends.  I am a good friend.