Social media is exactly what we make of it. http://bit.ly/163JG The inspiration for this thought was realizing that I know more about the daily thoughts and actions of my SM friends than I know about my family's! I'm not concerned with deeming it important or not as an absolute. That's an individual judgment people need to make for themselves. I do think it is a window into its users' identities regardless of how we perceive that information. Would you agree with that? - Bryan Landers

Important was probably the wrong word. I agree you can use SM to connect with people. I prefer to focus on the people and treat the medium used to connect as secondary or unimportant. This follows the same line of thinking that makes me like integrated technology. It's not about using computers/tech/service it's about living life. Tech simply connects the dots as much or as little as you want. I feel like SM is a forced/fake term. - Jon West

That's fair. Naming issues aside, here's something remarkable: I know more about you on a daily basis (what you're watching on tv, what restaurants you go to, what articles you liked, what happened at shopzilla this past week...) than I do about my parents! So, whatever it is that you and I are using that my parents are not has some amazing potential for connecting human beings. :) - Bryan Landers

bryan and jon, the question: Is quantity the same as quality? I agree with jon, it's not about the medium, but about the people. ethan even recently pointed out a doc reference to "social media" as "people media", which jon might find more appealing... - Taylor Davidson