Reflections on 7 weeks of Twitter silence. Part 2: The Twitter Community

In the first of a series of posts on my 7 weeks of Twitter silence I addressed the relative importance of Twitter as a connective tool.

In this second post I will discuss another existential question I was trying to answer by taking a step back and reflecting on what Twitter means to me:

IS THERE SUCH A THING AS A TWITTER COMMUNITY?

To answer this question, I first needed to define what a community is. If a community is a social group that lives together and shares common interests, then Twitter doesn't really fit the definition. Twitter is a space: it isn't a group. Within that space, groups sharing common interests can form, but they're fluid. They change according to each individual. For example, even though I may be part of an education group within Twitter, I doesn't mean my perception and experience of that group is similar to the perception and experience of another of its members. Why? Because in Twitter, even though a feeling a community may exists, the environment - the twitterverse - where each individual "lives" is unique to that person. I may be wrong, but I don't believe that two users in Twitter follow or are being followed by exactly the same people. Consequently, my view of the Twitterverse is unique to me. To use another analogy, the neighbours that I see everyday - the faces in my twitter feed - aren't the same as yours, although we may live on the same street. We just can't have the same view, although we can share common interests. Twitter is first and foremost about individuals, not groups.

Twitter is thus a network rather than a "village", where individuals interact based on their individual interests and particular circomstances. The connections are there, but they are not as constraining as what you would find in a group or a community. I have more control over who I want to connect with, and who I see everyday. It doesn't mean that I can't feel close to some people, that I have no feeling towards my network. I do. But it's not fixed in time or space: I may be highly connected to a few individuals for a few months, then connect with other individuals for a while, then start reconnecting with individuals I had lost contact with. It's up to me. That control, that freedom, is what paradoxically makes Twitter feel like home. I know that there is someone out there for me if I need it. I feel the power of the community. But this community is made up of individuals, not groups, who may share common interests, but are not bound to me in any way. That what makes their friendship and caring even more precious.

La suite demain...

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