Wasting Time

As 9 p.m. rolled around on Saturday, I was somewhere on I-71 heading north. Just me, an extra set of clothes, and a big mom van. Destination? Columbus.

It was one of those few times since graduating high school that I would be seeing people from my graduating class. Aside from my girls, most people I knew from high school I lost contact with. I wasn't "close" friends with a whole lot of people. I mostly kept to the cross-country team and young life. And even there I lost touch with a lot of people. With the exception of the few who I plan to stay friends with for the rest of my life, I was ready for a fresh start the moment I walked across the stage at commencement. That included leaving people behind.

Yet there I was, three years since high school and carving a chunk out of my weekend to see - get this - people I wasn't even really friends with in high school. People I never hung out with and barely talked to. So how on earth, in three years, did I go from "forget Fairfield" to suddenly spending the night with friends I was never friends with? Answer: twitter.

I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but somehow in the past three years three friends all acquired a twitter account; then we all began to follow one another. Then we began to tweet/mention one another. At first it was about random stuff: how will the football game go, what movies do I need to see, and so on. But as time began to continue on I realized a friendship was blooming. We'd joke to each other, or if need be, offer words of encouragement when times weren't so easy. What 12 years of school didn't do, twitter was able to accomplish.

I never thought highly of the whole "online friendship" thing. I guess it reminded me of my younger days when I was a middle schooler and had nothing better to do but to roam the web. I thought AOL chat rooms were cool, until I realized they were a magnet for all of the weirdos in the world. That's a big thing: people can be creepy and the best way to avoid the creepers is to stay far away from them. This means don't find friends via the web. Another part of me always thought it was kind of pathetic. Why do you need to find friends online when you can go out in the real world and find them? I always thought the ones who made friends online were the lonely weirdos just looking for company.

I still kind of feel that way...I guess. It depends. And my situation is unique because I already knew these people. They weren't random strangers. But to be fair, I have met strangers (see, that still sounds bad to me) online and they seem like rather normal people. I think. I hope. Maybe I'll never know.

The point is social media did what I thought it could never do: form genuine relationships. Now I'm not advocating that you should find your best friend or future spouse via the web. And it's certainly true that I am closer to the friends I hang out with more than the ones I simply tweet. But if it hadn't been for twitter, I would have never gone up to Columbus to hang out with the friends I was never friends with. I would've probably never seen a Crew game. And I'm almost certain my weekend would've been ten times more lame.

Ironic thing is I deactivated my facebook and decided to temporarily stop tweeting that Friday night before. I got annoyed with it, and I couldn't help but think to myself "This is stupid. Why do I care about these websites?" Little did I know that I would later realize how useful social media can be.

The moral of the story: Twitter is more than "status updates" as some would say. I realize it is a medium to connect with people I probably would've easily lost touch with, just like the others. So I'm glad I still use my social media outlets and I'm grateful for their existence. Even if they still feel like a complete waste of time.