It’s not really a problem for me, with my single-digit Twitter following, but anecdotal evidence shows that once a social networking community gets too big, the back-and-forth that created it evaporates. What I’m saying is, Ashton Kutcher is very lonely.
A Wired editorial defends the idea of online obscurity, that those smaller groups and their casual sense of community have something that should be admired and retained. Once a group gets too big, members fade into the background, not wanting to speak in front of such a large audience, and in the case of Twitter, the person being followed becomes larger than life. It’s an interesting idea—should we be more vigilant in protecting the small groups of which we’re a part? [Wired]
