Do I know you?

I have been listening to a podcast for at least 5 years called The Instance. I have to admit that I am a long-time player of World of Warcraft, which is the topic of the podcast. Given my job, it allows me to connect with the gamer community at the school. Also given my job, I am usually spending my discretionary time grading instead of playing. Anyway, what I wanted to talk about were the hosts of the show: Scott Johnson, Turpster, and "Dills" Gregory. These guys have been a small part of my life for a long time. They are my friends, right. Right?!? Wait a second, they have no idea who I am and now I feel like some weird stalker person.

Example number two: Frank Noschese (@fnoschese)
I have little idea who he is, and he probably has no idea who I am. (But we are following each other on Twitter.) I was about to tell my wife tonight that a guy I know is at the White House getting recognized for being an influential teacher. "Some Guy I know" I had to catch myself and remember that he was just a name on an email in the Modeling Physics listserve before last week.

Social media is pretty strange. With Twitter, Facebook, and Blogs I feel like I have so many "Friends". It is amazing that when you put yourself out there for the public to see someone might actually look at you.

I have to think on how these experiences I have had relate to my students. A solid 75% (made up stat) are tied into Facebook and an increasing number are using Twitter. How many of them feel totally connected to the people they are following? What happens when that person you have a connection with suddenly makes a public statement that betrays your trust in them even though they have no idea their impact? What ever happened to a couple of people talking behind your back? Now they just Tweet it out for all to see.

I experienced this in real-time when my very social conceptual physics class had a very difficult time focusing. It seems that right before class the Twitterverse exploded with a scandal involving people in my class cheating with other people in class while still dating someone...you get the picture. Let's just say having "difficulty focusing" was a bit of an understatement :)

So I guess I am putting myself out into the public. Hello to anyone who just happens to be looking. I don't know you, but I bet we could be friends.