The average Facebook user has 130 friends.  The average American will spend six complete days a month watching TV.  In the last quarter of 2008, Apple sold 22 million ipods and over 8 million iphones, meaning that Americans can now take the internet, their music collection, and even those Facebook friends with them wherever they please. 

We're a tuned in nation.  Tweets, wall Posts, texts, taglines, status updates, are all now a ubiquitous part of our life.  Many laud this as a great new moment in world history, the global village where the kid in Africa and the kid in Asia and the little rugrats in America can e-hug out the world problems.   

But for all that know-how and interconnectedness, do you know your neighbor's names?  Do you know who is on your city council?  What about your mayor's name?  Congressmen?  I don't, but I can name a few mayors and governors in other states (Sanford, Schwarzenneger). 

The most peculiar thing about the evolution of social media, is that it is not broadening our horizons, but providing increased access to stovepiped information.  While a few dedicated micro-bloggers write about community issues, the overwhelming white noise of the internet has drowned out everything but headlines blared from major news outlets. 

For example, we all know Sully, who performed the Miracle on the Hudson by landing a plane, but I've never known the name of any pilot who has held my life in his or her hands.  Just like I don't know the metro driver or even the person on the metro next to me.  I barely know my co-workers, but I do know my friend back in Seattle--two thousand miles away--had hot oatmeal for breakfast. 

 Granted, I like that I don't have to interact that much with my neighbors, especially the ex-con hoarder, but there are community issues that I should probably know about and probably be involved in.  We all should.  The mantra that world peace comes one community at a time is true.  I saw it work in Iraq.  

Maybe our communities are moving online, but crime, and snowstorms and potholes and corruption and taxes and accountability won't come by hitting the 'like' button on Facebook, and until it does, my generation needs to pull away from our status updates and do a community meet and greet. 

On a broader scale, communities are where movements start.  Community issues are often national issues, and I believe their fate is intrinsically tied to our democratic function, and our ability to communicate qualitatively, not just en masse.  

Maybe this is because I recently made the mistake of rereading 1984 last week, but I can't help but think we're all more vulnerable to an Orwellian future.  Our arguments, like those on healthcare, have lost their nuance.  Our interests, like those in Haiti, don't extend past texting a donation and feeling good about it. There's even an argument that social media is aiding dictatorial regimes.

The best example I can provide for this is the healthcare debate.  My Facebook friends were passionate about the passage of such legislation, but they did not attend townhall meetings or even e-mail their congressmen to inform them of their opinion.  Instead, they pasted the identical wall post a thousand times over.

"I think that no one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day." 

Orwell had a word for that: duckspeak.  It gives the illusion of activism and opinion, but only that. 

It's said the revolution will not be televised.  It probably won't be streamed on YouTube either or accomplished by forwarding an e-mail.  It will be in your community though, done as it always is with sweat and blood and effort, but only if we make it happen.