The New York Times recently published a must read article about the “Brave New World of Digital Intimacy”.  Specifically it deals with short blog-like updates on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.  I must confess that I’ve had a Facebook account for over three years (Twitter for about two) but it’s only been in the last six months that I really started to use Facebook.  More and more of my former high school and college classmates have signed up and I’ve enjoyed renewing old friendships.  My initial reaction to Twitter and the update status field of Facebook was very skeptical.  Would people really care what I was doing?  Would I care what they were doing?  I didn’t think so.  But my job is to experiment with new technologies so I decided to give it a try.  My experience was similar to the phenomenon described in the New York Times article:   ”Merely looking at a stranger’s Twitter or Facebook feed isn’t interesting, because it seems like blather. Follow it for a day, though, and it begins to feel like a short story; follow it for a month, and it’s a novel. “   From one friend in Richmond VA I learned that he won a local radio station contest, ran a half-marathon, is more of a die-hard Red Sox fan than I ever remember, has incredible passion and unending dedication for acting, and has an amazing network of contacts and friends – far more than I could have ever imagined (414 friend and counting).  We rarely, if ever, email and chat.  He has a blog where he posts major events -but in the past few months (since he joined Facebook) I have rediscovered what makes him such a great guy.  Sometimes technology really is amazing.

And how did I find out about this article?  It appeared as a news feed from another friend’s Facebook page…  Thanks Sean!

From Educause:
Seven Things you Should Know about Twitter
Seven Things you should Know about Facebook