[Comm][unity]: It’s no accident that the root of common, and the word unity make up this word. Communities can come in many forms, and can signify different things for different people. But almost always, a community is a group of people who have something in common, and they are united by whatever it is they share.

For me, community is, and always has been, a very important part of my life. I have been fortunate to be part of a number of different communities, many of them centered around my religion. The community at my temple in Massachusetts watched me grow up.  They witnessed several major milestones in my life, and at times it felt like more of a giant extended family. One of the most powerful experiences I’ve ever had is praying with the Eisner Camp community on Friday nights and Saturday mornings, with the beautiful Berkshire Mountains as a back drop. 

The concept of community is one of the many things that has changed because of the Internet. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace are at their core, online communities, and allow users the opportunity to form their own circles within the larger group. Networks like Brazen Careerist and 20 something bloggers take it a step further. By catering to one specific generation or age group, users know that they already have at least one thing in common with the other people on these sites.  

However, creating a community on Twitter is kind of like making your own sundae. There are plenty of options, different things you can add, and it’s up to you to choose the ones that will work well together, and be most enjoyable. It’s also a case of you get what you give. If you want to get a lot out of Twitter, you have to be willing to put a lot in. A number of bloggers have addressed the idea of Twitter community from a variety of different angles: building a strong foundation, the psychology behind the act of following, re-evaluating your Twitter philosophy, and that’s just a small sample.

Personally, I am very grateful for the online communities that I have become part of and formed. The connections I have made through these platforms are truly priceless, and I am constantly in awe of the power of social media to bring people together. That said, my online communities are certainly not the same as the communities I mentioned earlier.  I’ve never met most of the members of my online community, and some I never will. There are a select few who I have made a special connection with, and we’ve made the effort to talk one-on-one, often through Skype so we can actually see what the other one looks like. The members of my online communities are supportive, insightful, and intelligent, but our bond is different than if we had met under other circumstances. 

What does community mean to you? What are the things that make a community special? Has the Internet changed the concept of community? If you’re a part of online communities, how are they different? What do you like/dislike about them?

Sometimes I get totally overwhelmed by the number of social media sites out there. I definitely have some profiles and pages that have gone neglected, and some I forget about for a while until they randomly catch my attention again. It’s interesting to observe how the popularity of these sites, and our interest in them, rises and falls over time. We are riding the social media wave. 

Facebook was my first social networking obsession. I think I dabled in MySpace in high school, but I wasn’t too invested. My freshman year of college was when Facebook first started to take off, and then spread like wildfire. It was all the rage. New words were created (facebook: (v.) the act of looking someone up on Facebook. ex: I’ll facebook you later), and words that already existed took on new meanings (poke: (v.)  an action on Facebook which allows users to digitally stick a finger in the ribs of their friends, a sign of affection and friendship.)  I’ll admit, I was a Facebook addict. 

Though I still use Facebook regularly, it’s not the same anymore.  I mostly use it to play Scrabble (anyone up for a word battle?), to post and look at photos, and keep tabs on friends and acquaintances. Sorry Facebook, but you’ve been replaced…by a bird. Yep, Twitter is my #1 now.  I feel like I could be in one of those Swiffer commercials where the broom starts singing “baby, come back…” but, the broom would be Facebook. Okay, maybe it’s not that dramatic. As I said, I haven’t ditched Facebook completely, but Twitter is new and shiny, and constantly finding more ways to impress me. 

I came across this article the other day that asks a very important question: Can Twitter’s Growth Continue? We all know about the staggering growth rate the site has experienced, but can they keep it up? A potential stumbling block pointed out by the author of this article, is the lack of interest in Twitter among teenagers. Setting records for thumb speed, this group is all about text messaging, and Facebook is still their network of choice. Personally, I don’t think Twitter needs teenagers to succeed. In fact, one of the great things about Twitter is that there’s legitimate discussion going on, valuable thought sharing, and respect is shown to differing opinions.  It definitely wouldn’t be the same if you threw teenagers into the mix.

It’s also pretty obvious that GenY is a major force in the Twitter community. We have our own networks,  Brazen Careerist and 20 something bloggers, where we can integrate our tweets, and the support among GenYers is apparent on the Twitter feeds. 

So, I’m curious, what has your ride on the social media wave been like? What affects your/my/our level of interest or disinterest in these sites? Do you think Twitter needs teenagers to continue succeeding? Are there any up and coming sites that could eventually give Twitter some serious competition? 

Shamless Plug: If you’re on any of these wonderful networking sites and we haven’t connected yet, look over in the sidebar for links to all of my pages.

I love the concept of #followfriday on Twitter. It’s a great way to find new people to follow, recommended by those you trust. An added benefit is that you’re able to recognize the people you like, respect and admire. As you probably already know, I’m a big proponent of showing appreciation, so this Friday, I’m going to take the opportunity to share some of my favorite blog posts from this week. If you haven’t read them already, definitely check them out. These posts come from bloggers who I really admire. They are all wonderful, inspiring people, and I am happy to know them!  Happy Reading!

• Small Hands, Big Ideas:  The “I Can Do Anything,” Freedom of Your 20′s

• intersected:  Is All Popularity Worth the Same?

• Life Without Pants:  The Inconvenience of Change

• Insomniac Lolita: Tortured Princess, Who’s to Blame?

• Justice for all:  Dear Africa, I apologize

• Typescript:  Life and Love in Written Words

• Life After College:  Steve Jobs on Living Life to the Fullest

It’s funny how much our opinions can change.  Just last year, I was still an undergrad at Quinnipiac University in lovely Hamden, CT. I was a Print Journalism major, and it was the School of Communications that drew me to the QU in the first place.  I got a great education that was not limited to mainstream journalism, but included courses on interactive journalism and computer-assisted reporting. Combine that with three internships and a minor in Information Systems Management, and I was totally ready to jump into my ever-changing field armed with knowledge and experience.

As it turned out, I ended up working for an online ad network as Marketing Assistant, a job I love, but never expected, but that’s a different post for a different day. One thing that I didn’t mention is that my journalism education also gave me a very strong opinion about bloggers and the blogging space in general. Through no fault of any particular professor or text book, I saw bloggers as wannabe journalists who threatened the legitimacy of reporting and didn’t have much credibility. Well, would you look at me now? Here I am, writing about bloggers on my blog. If you had told me that a year ago, I never would have believed you.

So, what caused such a change of heart? I gave the blogosphere a chance. It was a gradual process, and I don’t think I even realized what was happening at the time.  One of my responsibilities at CPX is to serve as admin for our three company blogs (yes, that was a shameless plug). When I first started, I had to confront the very space that I had been so steadfastly opposed to. I began to read other blogs, and write for ours, and I realized it was actually pretty cool. As great as my job is, I found that I missed writing every day, and just like that, I had gone from a hater, to a skeptic, to an admirer, to a blogger.

Now that I’ve been blogging for a little more than four months, I decided to look back on my hater days from the other side. I know that the Internet poses a serious threat to traditional media. We have already seen numerous publications forced to shut down because they can’t afford the costs of printing and distribution anymore, and others holding on for dear life. If you ask a class of high school kids how many of them have ever read a newspaper, most of them would say, “you mean online?” So, then within the “evil Internet” are people who may never have had any formal journalism training, never worked at a newspaper or magazine, never even heard of the AP Stylebook (gasp!). And yet, they can write beatuiful, thought-provoking stories about the issues that matter most, and attract thousands of readers in the process.

Well, I can tell you one thing. Mainstream media is right to be afraid, because not only do bloggers provide competition for traditional journalists, they’re starting to win. Nisha Chittal wrote a great post that shows just how important, legitimate and relevant the online media has become. She talks about the execution of Delara Derabi, a 23-year-old young woman who was killed last Friday in Iran. According to Nisha’s research, it took the mainstream media until Saturday to start picking up the story.  So, in that case, where did the story break? Not on a news site or a blog, but on Twitter, and the first media outlet to cover the story was BreakingTweets.com, a Twitter-based news site run by a journalism grad student.

With all of this in mind, I can totally understand the negative feelings that journalists have for bloggers. I’m not at all surprised that I somehow managed to soak up the same attitude as I learned the tricks of the trade.  But as is often the case,  I think ignorance is the root of the problem. As I was going merrily along in my anti-blogger bubble, I don’t know that I ever took the time to read a blog. If I did, it was probably by some well-known journalism-related blogger who just further proved my generalizations.

Today, I am proud to call myself a blogger. In fact, I’m almost like a walking Web 2.0 advertisement, constantly trying to open people’s eyes to this magical world. I know now that there is so much more to the blogosphere than meets the eye. Sure, there are some people who blog just to snub traditional media, watch them shake in their boots, but those people are only a fraction of the greater community. And, it is a community filled with some of the most intelligent, insightful, beautiful, wise, interesting, powerful and courageous content I have ever read. There are some people who will never understand what all the hype is about, and that’s okay. But, I am not one of those people. This blog is my creative outlet, my way to reach people, to make my voice heard. It means so much to me that I recently bought my own domain and decided to self-host. If that’s not commitment, I don’t know what is. It really is funny how much our opinions can change.

What did you think of bloggers before you became one yourself? I’d love to hear your stories!

As you scan through your RSS feeds, you’ll probably find that most of the posts you read offer some sort of insight or advice. We bloggers are pretty smart people, and many of us blog because we feel like we have something valuable to share, and we definitely do. But, do we always practice what we preach? If not, does that make us hypocrites? Should we only give advice that we will try, or have tried, ourselves? 

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t always follow my own advice. To be honest, I think any blogger who says anything different is probably lying.  I write about things that have happened to me and what I’ve learned from them. The advice I give usually comes from those lessons, and if I haven’t followed it yet, it’s at least something that I hope to be able to follow in the future. But, sometimes life gets in the way, and I can’t always live my lessons. I don’t think this makes me a hypocrite, I think it makes me human, and that’s part of why my blog is so authentic in the first place. 

I’ve written about showing your friends some love, dealing with change, valuing what we have before we start looking for more, facing your emotions and letting yourself be sad…and these are all things that I believe are important, but just like you, I’m not always able to implement these philosophies into my everyday life. 

What about you? Do you always follow your own advice? What do you think of bloggers who don’t? Are we human or hypocrites? Where do we draw the line?

Welcome to the new home of Life Is Like a Box of Chocolates, my very own domain!

I know I’ve been MIA in the blogosphere for a little while, but I’ve been working on the site and making the transition to WordPress. I hope you like it! But, it’s definitely still a work in progress.

So, why the change? This blog has come to mean a lot to me. It’s my creative outlet, and it has been amazing to connect to so many great people. I wanted to make this blog the best it could be, and no matter how much I tinkered with it, something just wasn’t right. That’s why I decided to make the move to self-hosting, and I think it will be well worth it.

Since my blog is still settling into its new digs, I thought this would be the perfect time to talk about the concept of “home.” There are quite a few cliches about “home,” and they all seem to refer to it endearingly:

“Home, sweet home.”

“Home is where the heart is.”

“There’s no place like home.”

But, what makes somewhere home? Is wherever you happen to be living automatically your home, or do you have to feel something special for a place? Can more than one place feel like home?

So many questions, and I think there can be different answers. For me, “home” is not an automatic thing. I have to feel certain things like happiness, comfort, safety, familiarity, and love before a place truly becomes home. I don’t just say I’m going home, but i mean it, and I feel it, and I look forward to it.

What about the question, where are you from? In my mind, where I’m from is not where I live. It’s where I have my roots, it’s where I have years of memories. When someone asks me where I’m from, I hesitate and say that I live in New York, but I’m from Massachusetts.

Where is home for you? Where are you from?

I have written a lot about my friends, how awesome they are, and how I don’t know what I’d do without them. I’ve always believed that quality is much more important than quantity when it comes to friendship. There is no question in my mind that I would always choose a small group of close friends over a large group of people who I’m not as close with. My best friends are from across the country, and we met at different places and stages in our lives. Elementary school, middle school, high school, college, summer camp, summer program, internship. We have been roommates, suitemates, hallmates, and bunkmates. We have partied, laughed, cried, celebrated, consoled, traveled, danced, learned, and shopped together. I have countless wonderful memories with my friends, and I am so grateful to have them in my life.

Since I started blogging, tweeting, and networking across the Web 2.0 world, the concept of friendship has crossed my mind often. One common criticism of sites like Facebook and Myspace has been that they cause a disconnect between people, and prevent them from learning how to have real relationships with one another. This argument could definitely be made for teenagers, but as for us 20-somethings, I don’t think it applies. Blogging has allowed me to connect to some wonderful people who I may never have met otherwise.

I don’t consider myself “friends” with every person who reads my blog, but I love learning about people and finding out how much we have in common. I realize that forming an actual friendship takes more effort and requires one-on-one conversation, and I’ve been lucky enough to find that with a few special people. For example, without the digital world, I would never have known that a really awesome girl named Grace out in Colorado shares my love of reading, among other things, and we would have never started our online book club, Blogging Bookworms. And, I wouldn’t have gotten to know cool people from across the country (Chicago, Nashville, California) and across the world (Canada, Indonesia).

So, take advantage of the great big digital world that you’re lucky enough to be a part of. Make the extra effort to get to know some of your fellow bloggers. You never know, it just might blossom into a wonderful friendship!

Over the past few years, the number of social media sites has increased tremendously. As part of my job as Marketing Assistant at CPX Interactive, I maintain our profiles on a number of sites. (How many is “a number?” Check out this page). In order to find the best sites for the company, I’ve been doing a lot of exploring myself. That’s actually how I got started blogging. I was doing it for my company when I realized it would be a great way for me to be able to write and connect with people.

Between all of the profiles for work, and all of the sites I’m on personally, it can get pretty overwhelming. There are some sites that have totally eclipsed others, and I’m not sure if I’m missing out on something great. So, here are some that I’m unsure about/have been neglecting. Please share your experiences too, and help me avoid social media overload!

• MyBlogLog
• Friend Feed
• chi.mp (I was so excited to get a code for this one, but I’m not quite sure how to make the most of it now that I have one)
• delicious
• Social Marketing Central

Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? Definitely let me know if there are other sites I’m missing out on, and if anyone else has questions about sites, feel free to comment about them. Thanks!

Blogging is like therapy. No really, think about it. Don’t see the similarities? Read on…

Every time your page views go up, someone new starts following your blog, or another blogger links to one of your posts, you feel validated, like it’s all worth it. We link from our blogs to Twitter and other networking sites to connect with as many people as possible. In a way, our blog popularity is a way of saying, “Hey bullies and former cool kids, I am not a nobody, people care what I have to say.”

Still not convinced with my comparison? Maybe blogging is more like group therapy. We write about the things that are going on in our lives, and fellow bloggers respond, often sharing their own experiences and offering advice. How great does it feel to write a post about something that’s been bothering you? It’s like a release. Isn’t it comforting to read a post by someone else about something you’ve experienced? You know you’re not alone.

I’m not saying that this similarity is good or bad, but we definitely have to be careful not to blur the line too much. I feel that there’s a difference between a blog and a diary. There have been times when I’ve shared some pretty personal things on my blog, but there are also some things that I have never posted about and probably never will. A hot topic in the blogosphere recently has been authenticity, and some would say that I’m not representing myself authentically if there are things I don’t include in my posts. But, I don’t see it that way. When I share something personal, it’s because I want to, and because I feel that my experience could help someone else who is in a similar situation. I only write these posts when I’m ready to share that part of my life. I don’t ever want to post something that I later regret sharing with the world.

Blogging is like therapy, and it can serve as a great outlet to connect with people who understand us and what we’re going through. Everyone makes their own decisions as far as what they will and won’t write about on their blog. For some, there is a clear dividing line between the digital world and the real world. We may only be comfortable sharing certain things with the people who know us well, and that’s okay. There are certain things that are too personal to share with the blogosphere. So, keep telling your stories, in as much detail as you want, but don’t ditch the couch just yet.

Disclaimer: I am in no way encouraging people to stop going to therapy. Blogging may be like therapy, but it’s definitely not the same.

The interesting thing about the blogosphere is that most of us only know each other through the Web. Though we may eventually meet some of our “digital friends” at one point or another, most of what we know about them is from profiles, tweets and blog entries.

One of my favorite bloggers recently wrote a post about the relationship between personal branding and authenticity, and how we define ourselves on the Web. She says that we see other bloggers how they want us to see them, from how they portray themselves through their blog posts. We’re not necessarily seeing the real deal. The question is, does your blog portray the true you?

Some of us are probably content with the amount of information we share with our readers, and how much we know about the authors of the blogs we read. But, do you ever wonder, who is this person whose blog I read everyday? I wonder what else we have in common besides blogging.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted 25 Things About Me, and got some great comments. So, if you want your readers to know that there’s more to you than the topics you post about, share a little bit. If you can’t think of 25 things about yourself like I did, I’ve done the work for you. Delete my answers from the questions below and post your own answers on your blog:

Are you on Twitter, Facebook, 20 Something Bloggers, Brazen Careerist, or other networking sites?
Yes, all of the above!

What do you do? Are you a student, do you work, or both?
I am the Marketing Assistant at CPX Interactive, an online ad network. My job is to find new and innovative ways to get our company’s name out there using the Internet.

How many different states have you lived in, and which ones?
Including school, four: Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, and Virginia.

iPhone, Crackberry, or good old cell phone?
Crackberry!

What do you do in your spare time besides blogging and social networking?
I don’t have too much spare time right now since I’m in the process of moving, but I like to read, watch sports (especially football), shop, be outdoors, and spend time with friends and family.

What is your favorite post that you have written?
That’s a tough one. Probably the post about my grandma, and why I support the Alzheimer’s Association. It was really tough to write, but I’m so glad that I did.

What is your favorite guilty pleasure TV show?
The Hills on MTV. I don’t want to like it, but I just can’t help it.

Explain the title of your blog and why you gave it that name.
Life Is Like a Box of Chocolates: a tribute to the wisdom of Forest Gump, and something that I really feel is true. You never know what life will send your way, so the best you can do is enjoy the good stuff and learn from the bad stuff.

Feel free to re-post this content, and add more questions if you like, just please link back here. You’ll be surprised how much you can learn about others when you share a little bit of yourself.