I have to admit it.

I've become somewhat addicted to social networking. Or at least the concepts behind it all.

And it's not just me. My wife, daughters and son all participate in on line social networking in one way or another.

Web sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and of course Blogger really intrigue me. What is it about these web sites? What is it that makes them so popular? What draws people of all ages from around the world and all walks of life to them?

I've thought about this for a while. Well, not for 'really' long, but long enough to develop a hypothosis.

I believe that these on line communities (in one form or another) have become a substitute for the close knit families and neighborhoods that have disappeared during the last few generations.

Friends and families are often dispersed across the country or even around the world. This is much different than in years gone by when multiple generations of a family would live in the same city, neighborhood, or sometimes even in the same house!

In the last few decades, our modern societies have lost their connection to family and friends. I really think that we miss that, and that it has adversely affected our society and culture.

Social networking is really nothing other than a mechanism for people to communicate with each other again. Family and friends are finding each other; catching up on years of missed events and news; reconnecting with people that they really love, people that they have missed.

We are also making new connections. We are finding new friends and developing relationships without actually meeting each other in the physical sense.

I believe that social networking makes technology truly personal, almost in a human way. We are connected again.

Twitter and microblogging for that matter have been around for a long time, as for the recent craze I think has been fueled by the sudden media attention, seems in just the past few months every news agency and celebrity has jumped on board with Twitter something that was rarely seen in the past. Add the fact that almost every newscast these days refers to twitter at some point in the broadcast you find lots of curious people signing up and getting hooked

Twitter has done what blogs were never able to do. Give fast & relevant information without stupid commentary. You can also share web links & photos.

I agree with pazaq. While I love seeing my friends updates and links, when I see something that works me up, I want to tell my audience, and that's twitter. 30 followers is enough to pour my thoughts onto. :)

When my friends respond or post links and thoughts of their own, I feel like we are coming together to make things better.

I think it has a little to do with being able to vent to an audience. But over all it's just because we are social creatures. Most of us like to hear our own voices.

Just my 2 cents.

I think it's a few things. First, it's incredibly simple, and anybody can understand it. When my grandmother is able to open up the twitter page and figure it out, that makes for a massive potential audience.

It's also very easy to do. It only takes a few seconds to update twitter about how you're feeling, what you're doing, or something interesting you saw today.

It's interesting. You can meet people that you wouldn't typically be able to meet. It's not a closed system like Facebook, where you generally have to meet someone in the real world and then friend them on FB. On Twitter, it's perfectly normal to step in on somebody else's conversation, and strike up a friendship with them (at least on the web page).

We also get to hear from people we normally wouldn't hear from. Celebrities from all across the spectrum can give us their unfiltered thoughts, and we usually know if it is actually them speaking or not. For example, Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore. It's very interesting to hear what they have to say. I'm a big cycling fan, so I love hearing from Lance Armstrong directly.

It's a great tool to learn new things, hear from people we wouldn't normally hear from, and it's very easy.