Yesterday we hosted a gracious, intellectual NRI couple over drinks and dinner… They are Amit’s acquaintances but strangely I had not heard of them ever before… so asked him who they are and a bit of their background before they landed at our place… He coolly said “they are my Twitter friends !!!”… I looked at him astonishingly while he continued “the gentleman is a professor in a Canadian University and the lady writes for an International Journal”.… I continued to stare at him but he had nothing to say further… he knew nothing more about them… all my very basic questions like where do they stay? Do they have kids? What are they doing in India? etc were left unanswered…

They came home and after the initial greetings, the topic shifted to Indian education system and role of politics… I soon realized that this was the subject of discussion on which Amit and these guests had been tweeting and that their common views had got them to connect on Twitter and outside it… rest of the evening was spent discussing this topic and about the fellow Tweeters (Tweeple is what they are called I am told!!) who also shared their views… I am not on Twitter myself but do know that it is a platform to exchange messages/views/opinions/discussion threads… seeing Amit tweeting all the while, I also know that it is a big addiction… but a new facet of Twitter was unveiled yesterday – Twitter friends… these friends don’t know much about each others’ personal or professional lives except what is published on the profile… yet they bond well as they share something in common – a common interest, a common cause, a common goal…

I asked the lady as to how many hours everyday does she spend on Twitter and pat came the reply “all 24 hours… I have stopped watching TV or reading newspapers… I get all my dose of news on Twitter”… this is also the case with Amit and with everyone who is active on Twitter I guess… she continued “as part of my job I don’t just need to know what is happening around but also peoples’ opinion on every event… they all express freely on Twitter… I am in a profession of writing and I get my ideas through Twitter”… alright… so the way I look at it is, TV, newspapers and the electronic media is just one way relay… whereas on Twitter one is allowed to respond, share views and enter discussion threads as also start debates and discussions… and this two way interaction is what keeps people glued onto Twitter… those who keep tweeting each other become ‘twitter friends’…

Facebook had helped us connect with our old and lost friends, keeps us posted on what these friends are upto and has also initiated many a reunions… but all this exchange is in a known sphere of people… Twitter is preparing us for much more than that… Twitter has provided a platform to make new set of friends, where Age, Profession, Location, Income strata, Language etc don’t matter… what matters is mutual respect and common interests… only time will tell how fruitful or lasting these twitter friendships will be but for now we are all set to welcome these new set of people - ‘tweeple’ into our daily lives…