Why Do You Want to KNOW?

I was just reading a report from Harvard’s Kennedy School that ponders our movement from Gov 2.0 to Society 2.0. In the report, the discussion of Facebook, Twitter and other social media led one city’s mayor to query WHY people want to know what everyone else is doing from day-to-day. This is a common question – at least for those who haven’t yet waded into the technology of social media. Once a trepidatious foot has been dipped in that water, however, one quickly becomes fully immersed in the fluid trivialities of others’ lives.

Those of us who are regular and familiar users of such technology have already discovered the strange pleasure in reading about a friend’s remodeling project, a cousin’s party exploits, or an acquaintance’s gourmet cooking adventures. On its face, those appear to be rather dull topics that probably wouldn’t inspire hours of deep dialogue at a face-to-face gathering. So we ask – why do we want to know?

These daily “posts” on Facebook and Twitter are really just an extension of the random conversations we would be having with one another if we had the time to get together. These are the types of conversations that we typically don’t think twice about as we maneuver through our lives. Yet, these small and even meaningless bits of information work as super glue to connect us.

In his book Bowling Alone, Putnam posits that communal disconnection started to occur in the sixties and seventies with a decrease in bowling leagues and other social activities that had been the informal cornerstone of American engagement and community-building for decades.  Disengagement from others’ lives and a loss of community occurred for many reasons, such as the increasing complexity and demands of family life. This doesn’t mean that people no longer wanted to be a part of a community or no longer wanted to know what was happening; they just didn’t have the time. Long gone are the days of aproned-mothers gathering at a neighbor’s clothes line to connect about their lives, and unawares – build their community. Now we have Facebook and Twitter. It’s our new “clothes line” – our new neighborhood coffee shop, new local bar, and new bowling alley. 

Technology has only made it easier to know all you ever wanted about everyone and everything, and with less time invested. This “knowing” is what helps build community and connection. We don’t have time to chat at the clothes line anymore (let alone time to actually get the clothes off the floor and into the washing machine), but there is time to check Facebook a few minutes each day. That’s a good thing! Because, those of us who are fully immersed in this type of social media will tell you that the little time invested in reading about the happenings in our friends’ and family’s worlds, and to comment on one’s own world, works to bring us  closer together and re-formulate “community.”  It creates a sense of “place” in this ever expanding cyber world.