What exactly is a tweet? And if I've been tweeted does that mean I'm twittered?
It seems that Twitter and Facebook have taken the world by storm. If I'm not being poked, I'm receiving tweets. Whatever happened to good old-fashioned communication?
Choose your poison - Facebook or Twitter. They are the websites you check between emails, phone calls, television shows, meals, naps and office meetings. Both are like fast growing weeds and I'm hooked.
Facebook began as a way for students at colleges to communicate with each other and organize their social lives online. It is a site anyone can join, and create a personal profile. Using networks typically based on geographical areas, companies or post-secondary schools - users can find friends and create their social network.
It's also no longer for students; my Dad who lives in Dubai has a Facebook page. Perhaps the most appealing part of Facebook is the emphasis it places on keeping in touch with friends and family. It's like a high school reunion without the sketchy punch bowl and awkward nametags.
Within the paradigm of Facebook users have the option of joining groups. I've joined a few Sea to Sky based groups. Users can choose groups such as "I Will Go Slightly Out of My Way To Step On That Crunchy-looking Leaf" to groups based on favourite sports teams.
The site has more than 18 million users and it's growing everyday. In fact, work is being done to allow Facebook in China, which currently blocks the site.
Twitter on the other hand is the Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) version of Facebook and media outlets seem to love it.
Twitter is also a free service that lets you keep in touch with people through the exchange of quick frequent answers to one simple question: what are you doing? You can follow celebrities such as Chief reporters or Demi Moore who recently posted photos of herself in the dentist's chair.
With media outlets embracing Twitter, perhaps the next step is the Twitter novel. Japan, mobile phone novels called "keitai shousetus" have become so successful that they accounted for half of the 10 best-selling novels in 2007. Here in the Western world several would-be novelists are attempting to use Twitter to create the same phenomenon.
Facebook and Twitter serve as an interesting social experiment. Perhaps the lure of the social networking phenomena is a sense of connection found on its pages. You are no longer alone in front of your computer. Whether it's laughing at someone's vow to grow a playoff beard or sharing photos with friends, the computer has become a social environment.
They are less creepy than other sites but Facebook and Twitter have their dark side. Firstly, it's addictive and I'm predicting social networking detox centres.
The craze seems to spreading. Is it just a trend with the staying power of MC Hammer pants? Or a new way of connecting is a hyper-technological world? Whatever it is, I already have friends taking one-week sabbaticals from Facebook and Twitter to prevent dependency.
