Friday Five New Communication

Kathrynzj posted this really interesting FF:

I had the joy of spending time with Songbird last weekend, someone I would have never met had it not been for the blogosphere. Now we keep in touch using a large variety of methods: blog (hers a lot, mine not so much lately), facebook, twitter, text messaging, chat and email. So far there has been no skype:

It got me to thinking of the pros and cons of these relatively new means of communication and interconnecting and so I ask you the following:

1) What have been the benefits for you of social networking (blog, twitter, facebook, etc...)

I've gotten in touch with old friends from my early years in NY who have moved away and befriended someone from HS who was never really a friend then. I also enjoy these FF's with you all! And learning about you.

2) Which medium do you use the most? Or if you use them all, for what do you use each of them?

I use e-mail intensely at work and on my iphone. No text messaging, chat for me. I did chat in the early days of AOL 1.01 but then it was a novelty. Now with my MacBook Pro I can video chat,like skype and I could skype now! but I have to find someone with video... I tried twitter, but my last name is the same as the name as the diagnosis for the milder form of Autism, so people interested in that kept following me... And the content was too short, so I stopped

3) If you could invent a networking site (with no limits on your imagination), what would it provide? What would it not provide?

I would provide a cloud where we could transport ourselves-our real selves- there to chat, play, dine instantly. An alter-world, but with our real bodies.

4) Who have you met that you would not have met if it were not for the 'miracle' of social networking?

All of you.

5) Who do you secretly pray does not one day try to 'friend/follow' you?

Hmmm. Pat Robertson is dead. Sarah Palin? W? (I can't give a real answer because, this is a public forum, you know...)

BONUS: What was the most random/weird/unsettling/wonderful connection you made that would not have happened if it were not for the ease of which we can find each other in the computer realm?