I have only a few people on there that I have only had peripheral contact with. Not to defend the whole thing… but they do put tools in there to deal with not having to see all the silly posts (click ‘less from this user’).

I actually have more of a problem of occasionally going through my friend list and making sure to ping people I do care about. People who contribute less but who I desperately don’t want to forget / lose contact with.

And I’d love to see you over there David! (Really I just wish there was ONE app out there. I got FB + myspace and the latter drives me up the wall.)

I haven’t used Twitter yet, because I’m scared of having something in addition to these newly discovered blogs to suck up my time, but I’m sure I will succumb eventually. I really like the idea of preliminary conversations that spark blog ideas, and the feeling of being part of a community, so maybe I’m already convinced.

Also, David, I’d like to thank you for teaching me a new word. Now I just need to find a way to use “fora” as many times as possible today! :)

For what it’s worth, I very rarely travel these days; this is the second non-local conference I’ve gone to in six years. I do follow several people who do; by doing so, I have gotten more evidence that it wouldn’t be the right choice for me right now, though…

As you say, following someone’s blog and Twitter feed is a surprisingly aposite way of coming to appreciate their ways of thinking and the things you may have in common with them.

In my head, it seems as though almost everyone who blogs works constantly in a position which requires that they travel across the US a lot for meeting after meeting with their Blackberry/iPhone/netbook in tow, and vice versa. I can’t relate to this world, but I’m sure that Twitter is all the more useful in it, in that you can always scribble down the URL of person X’s Twitter feed now for when you’re less busy.

I would argue that it’s different with Facebook. I carefully screen those I follow on Twitter, making sure I only pay attention to a feed when it is especially informative or interesting. My Facebook account is almost useless, since none of the people who surround me geographically have particularly interesting lives. I have no wish to waste my precious time trawling through each night’s barrage of drunken photographs, for example.

The intimacy of Twitter, though still superficial, is more worth my while: real discussions have happened over Twitter, even if they’re just sparks before the fire of a blog post, or ‘I did this mundane thing today’ tweets. Furthermore, my use of Twitter has been central to making me feel like part of a community (though perhaps that’s premature, or artificial, or both), a sense which I never really got from Facebook.

I’m skeptical of using the term ‘strong connection’ with reference to those I am exclusively in touch with through online social networking, but I can imagine such bonds forming, and I often flatter myself that the intellectual/superficial/otherwise discussions I’m having on the internet help to foster some fraction of an emotional bond between blogger and commenter, or between tweeter and tweetee.

As you say, new forms of social interaction online pave the way for the expression of more nuanced human relationships over the internet. I’m optimistic about the future of social networking apps, even though I hate Facebook.