"Just as running doesn't help people learn to cycle and flapping our arms doesn't allow people to mimic birds, facility with old modes of online interaction may not prepare folks for Tweets, Super Walls, or Seesmic. I don't have 1200 friends (by the former definition) any more than my students do, but they do maintain social networks of contacts they call "friends" at a truly impressive scale -- and the fact that we still don't have a word for recognized but not proximate Facebook contacts is an important clue as to the disruption underway."