All the means of being heard

Anonimity is the by-product of a large collection of people.  It is impossible to hide in small groupings of people.  Small towns are being left for the opportunities large city afford.  People leave those small communities not only for opportunity, but also anonmity (how many times have heard the following said about small towns: "everybody knows everbody else's business"?).  Anonimity provides the opportunity to avoid accountability, to adapt a new persona, and to be ignored.  Enter the world of FaceBook, MySpace, SMS, Twitter, etc.  Now, anonimity's values and opportunities are betrayed, cashed-in, for the sake of being noticed and heard.

Twitter is good because i can see what my duly elected officials are doing as often as they update.  But I have people following me, and I have no idea why.  I do not know them, yet their profile shows that they follow hundreds and hundreds follow them.  I don't get it, I guess.  Is there a Twitter reward program of which I am unaware?

I use blogging and FaceBook to express my views, views which, by the way, I also share with my duly elected officials in Austin and DC.  We have great discussion, there is a greater sense of connection to the multi-faceted American mosaic of people.  Grassroots mobilization and debate has seldom been more fluid.  I want to be heard, rather than feel I am the only frustrated soul in the country (I live in the city because that is where my job is, and I feel an obligation to provide for my family with as little government interference as possible).  I have met many wonderful people and had many good debates with my FB community of friends. 

I am member of several forums and boards on which I post.  I discuss matters of interest with people all over the world.  This has been very helpful in two of my hobbies: music and playing guitar.  The knowledge I have gained in the last 5 years in these areas far exceeds what I had learned in the 40+ years previous.  These are a good things.

One thing is lacking in all of these "instruments of connection": actual human contact.  I mean, where do people meet to have these rich conversations?  The fact is we cannot.  Workdays and commutes are too long, our families need our presence (and we need to be with them, too), our global friends are still too far away, and we don't really have good front porches anymore...