Tweeting

I am still a little skeptical of these new forms of learning, but they are making more sense as I read more.  Is Twitter just another form of staying connected in our hyper-busy world?  I recently spoke to a friend – on our cellphones, granted, and we were both in our cars (using headsets) driving to our homes -he and I separated by 400 miles.  We had been trying to connect via phone for 6 months (no joke) and we had had minimal email contact b/c neither one of us had time.  While the details of our conversation are not important here, do we move to things like Twitter to feel more engaged or be more engaged in a very busy world?  Is Twitter a new device for staying connected that is being used by the academic community b/c it is sign of our social and time-constrained  inabilities that are not dissipating anytime soon?  I’m still a fan of face-to-face discussion and talking ont he phone, but I realize the difficulties of these simple social pleasures in a world that is overwhelmed.