Comments on: In Defense of Tweeting About Tea and Biscuits

By: Kristine

Kristine — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 20:45:07 +0000

Thanks for this a million times over. All of my friends and family live on the other side of the country. The only family I have within a thousand miles is my husband. If the Internet did not exist, I don’t think I could have made this huge life change – no matter how good it was for the two of us. Because of Facebook, I get to talk to my best friend every single day. Because of social media, I got to help my sister through a really awful relationship. If that is silly and self-absorbed then I guess I am too.

By: Ms. M

Ms. M — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 17:39:38 +0000

I love all this technology. When I first moved a thousand miles away from my family at 22, we had the phone, with expensive long distance fees. Now, I can keep up with friends and family with lots and lots of email, blogs, and flat rate internet long distance calls (I’m a non-Facebook / twitter user, because most of my family / friends aren’t using it). I just met an awesome group up people IRL last week through Meetup. The internet is also full of classes for my homeschooled 14yo from great professors, and I get to share in, yes, funny cat pictures other people make.

All this minutiae may be boring to others, but to me, it is my way of having MORE connection to those I care about.

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 02:46:47 +0000

I am so co-signing everything about this. I love the internets. I was a bit of a slow adopter in the beginning, but social media has made my life immeasurably richer, and no, I’m not exaggerating. It keeps me in touch with friends and family I would probably otherwise lose contact with because we’re scattered all around the world. And I have met so many terrific people on-line—including all of the Harpies and several of our commenters—that I only wish I could take social media into the wayback machine and return to 1996, when I first moved to NYC. If I’d had the internet to find like-minded people when I first moved here, it would have been a much, much easier to build a social network.

And as for blogging, I just see it as an extension of the diarist tradition, which is as old as the written word. Now more people can do it and more people can read it, but if you’re one of those grumps who argues that it’s a bad thing for more people to have their say and make their voices heard, then frankly, you’re an asshole (and you should just quit using the internet already—no one’s forcing you to read blogs or participate in social media).

By: Mackey

Mackey — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 01:05:41 +0000

This kinds reminds me of something a good friend once said “no one group of people (or person for that matter) has a monopoly on being an a$$hat”.
This can occur in a multiple of locations – IRL or online.
I read the critiques of the chicken littles (aka “the sky is falling down”) when radio and tv were going to destroy civilsation as we know it.
But civilisation wasn’t destroyed.
I think this is especially the case in the use of these technologies.
(as a fellow user of the technologies to keep in contact with friends and families who are not in the same location as me).

By: gherkinette

gherkinette — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:42:17 +0000

Yep, this is exactly my feeling about t’internet. I live a long way from family, am very very poor, have ill health and am agoraphobic. Being able to hang out virtually with people I love and who support me is one of my great joys in life.

I imagine the people who sneer at Facebook and Twitter lack hobbies, live within a mile of where they were born and lack curiousity. (Which is me being as judgemental as they are, but I don’t feel the need to go on unrelated sites or into conversations and say it, so I don’t feel so bad saying it here.)

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got two people on GChat to get back to and a couple of articles to read that I clipped off Twitter. And mine’s a Lapsang Souchong I think…