A man and his wife are sitting in front of a computer, writing an e-mail: “Dear Andy: How have you been? Your mother and I are fine. We miss you. Please sign off your computer and come downstairs for something to eat. Love, Dad.”

Funny? Yes. Sad? Even moreso, mostly because it is so true. We think this scenario doesn’t apply to us and, technically, it doesn’t. No Marquette moms live in Cobeen or Mashuda. But consider the following situations:

1. A student “Tweets” her roommate to let her know they need to talk instead of actually going to talk to her, which might be easier since they live together.
2. A student uses the chat option on Facebook when he needs to tell his roommate something but is too lazy to walk the two feet between their rooms.
3. A student e-mails a classmate to ask questions about class while they are actually in class, but they never talk face to face.
4. Every time a student wants to reschedule an exam or ask for an extension of a deadline, she e-mails the professor.

Most of us can identify ourselves with at least one of the aforementioned scenarios because we are victims of societal disconnect from our compulsive need to be connected on various social media platforms.

We “Tweet” about our daily activities. We complain about school on our blogs. We write on friends’ Facebook walls to say hi, check out pictures and read status updates. We check our e-mail as soon as we get to a computer. Before that, we log on to Facebook just to see what is going on, in case something important happened during the five minutes we were offline.

We know who our floormate from freshman year hooked up with while studying abroad in Chile. We know where the guy we met while we were backpacking in Europe is working now. We know how many shots of tequila the girls we befriended while in Cancun for spring break two years ago had last night. We know that the redhead from our history class overslept today.

We know more about what our friends are doing than ever before, but we know our friends less than ever before. Since we spend so much time online trying to keep in touch with all the random people in our lives, we don’t have time to build real and deep relationships.

“We risk to lose depth to get more breadth,” said Kristen Foster, associate professor of history. “Deep and meaningful relationships take time, but we want too much, too fast.”

Foster said she has noticed that her students feel much more comfortable with electronic communication than with face-to-face communication.

“This is not an entirely new phenomenon — people have always felt more comfortable with mediated communication. Social media has made communication much easier, faster and more efficient, thus people, especially younger people, prefer it over any other communications medium,” said Daradirek “Gee” Ekachai, associate professor of advertising and public relations.

Social media has created a major shift in the way we communicate. Its effectiveness and quickness reflects our fast-paced, productivity-driven society.

“My life is too hectic and too busy to have time to meet with my friends face-to-face, that is why I meet them online,” said Katrina Kurniati, a junior in the College of Engineering. “It is there, it is easy and it saves me time.”

“We are adding another tool in our communication repertoire,” said Scott D’Urso, assistant professor of communication studies. “Just like other technologies that have come along over time, such as the phone or e-mail, people are adapting their communication practices to maximize their communication effectiveness, regardless of the method or channel used.”

Although social media is a fast and easy way to communicate, it is not necessarily better.

“It is a great tool, but it is not a substitute for face-to-face communication,” Ekachai said.

It is an addition to it.

“It is about finding the right balance. We can use social media and face-to-face communication. It is not an either/or situation,” said Martha Hurtado, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences.

Social media gives us an opportunity to start a community and to finish conversations for which we didn’t have time. The only way we can build a real community or a real relationship, however, is through honest and meaningful face-to-face communication.

So sign off your computer. Go out and talk to people. Get to know who they are and what they think instead of reading what they had for breakfast and checking out their drunk pictures from Thursday night at Caffrey’s.

Social media has become a booming obsession in what it seems like the last year. From Twitter to Facebook and Linked In to MySpace, social media has become a tool of choice to talk. The saddest part is no one likes to talk face to face anymore. I guess that is understandable though; there are definitely some people who I just don’t think I could be able to look at them for long enough to have a conversation.

What does that say about this generation? I know that there has been many issues and outcries regarding the Facebook revamping. I think the most common response was that it was too much like Twitter. But wait? Isn’t everyone on Twitter?

That’s what it seems like to me at least. Most people I know have a love to post breakfast, lunch, dinner and everything in between for the world to see. I just don’t care enough to read constant status updates on Twitter, let alone on the new Twitter-friendly Facebook.

Communication and status updates are the least of this generation’s worries when it comes to using social media. I am not sure how many people know this, but Facebook, MySpace, Linked In and Twitter have all become virtual tattoos. So many companies have begun to look at these social media outlets to get a glimpse of who the person really is, and who they may or may not be on paper. I know for a fact certain departments on campus use it to check out perspective employees. Remember to keep that stuff off your profiles, even if you have your profile on private everything has become intellectual property that anyone on the World Wide Web can access.

I feel like this blog is like a Twitter update, short and sweet. I just had a little venting about how dumb people can be sometimes to get caught up in status updates and blackout photos. It just makes me laugh. Then again, it is only my opinion, but remember that my opinion is the popular one. (It’s been a while since I said that, and it feels great to say it again!)

While posting Facebook-style status updates is popular on Twitter, 140 characters can be used in ways that strategically benefit the user. Lauren Rabaino, a sophomore at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, Calif., and intern for the Center for Innovation in College Media, said students need to get started as soon as possible to make connections.

“There is a niche for every type of person on Twitter, and that means endless opportunities to connect,” Rabaino said.

There are no rules except basic netiquette, mimicking social media networks like Facebook and MySpace. Use discretion, and keep in mind who will be following you, said Steve Glynn of the Milwaukee-based creative agency, Spreenkler LLC. Drunken late-night Tweets and excessive use of curse words may deter prospective followers or contacts.

Glynn said messages should be relevant to the desired audience, and students should follow and interact with companies they might want to work with in the future.

“Talk about your skills and how they apply to the business the company is in because that’s what they’re going to want to hear,” he said.

Spencer March, co-founder of the College Blog Network, said building informal professional relationships in a student’s career field is one of the best ways to utilize Twitter.

But it’s important to keep a personal side to your Tweets, Glynn said. Look for the right time to send a reply, and it can be easy and useful to network informally while keeping your individuality. Talking about classes you’re taking, projects you’re working on and research you’re doing is a good way to maintain a personal yet professional brand on Twitter.

Rabaino said it’s important to build up your brand and to create your own identity online. This leads to ease of transferring a positive, employable image into the working world when the time comes.

“When employers or recruiters Google a student’s name, they should get the gist of what that student is all about,” she said. “The more active students are on social media, the higher they’ll rank on those search results.”

Using Twitter to your advantage can help with schoolwork, too. According to Glynn, the Twitter community is very helpful and actively responsive to personal inquiries. Students can find almost any company on Twitter, ask for an opinion or information for research purposes, and responses will pour in almost immediately.

While correspondence with professionals may help with research, Rabaino emphasized that this is still a way of building contacts.

“The more connections you make, the more you’ll know about your industry. The more you know about your industry, the more you can innovate,” Rabaino said. “And it’s the innovators who get jobs.”

Ben Leis, CEO of The Campus Buzz, recommended that students find professionals in their field using Twitter and ask for advice.

“Use Twitter to find people that share common interests or for people that can help you with something specific, and ask them for their input and help,” he said.

According to Leis, the 140-character limit for each Tweet forces people to find the most efficient way to communicate. Whether it is to promote a résumé, to demonstrate work or anything else, a strong presence in this social medium can help you network and build a positive image for yourself.

“Twitter is the single most powerful text-based medium in existence,” Rabaino said. “It’s ironic because it’s so painstakingly simple.”

It can be used for anything, she said. Twitter can play the role of a news aggregator, a news breaker, a chat room, an RSS feed — it can be a social and a professional network at the same time.

“We, as students, young minds, Gen Y, innovators, whatever we want to call ourselves — we are writing the rules,” Rabaino said. “We are defining the way to use these social networks to innovate.

“Everyone should hop on. Dive in. Join the conversation. Make connections. Get your name out there and make sure people know who you are and why you’re important,” she said.

For help getting started on Twitter, click here to find some useful tips, “Twittiquette,” definitions and a list of recommended users to follow. (You can follow us —­­ just add @MUjournal.) Also check out Becky Simo’s Total BS column, Wait, let me Tweet that.

Definitions
Media: Tools used to communicate and share information, such as newspapers, magazines, television or radio programs.
Social media: Internet and mobile-based networks used to share and discuss information and promote social interaction.
Twitter: An extremely popular social media network, asking users to answer “What are you doing?” with updates in 140 characters or less.
Tweets: Status updates sent to Twitter.
RT: Retweet. When users see links or Tweets they would like to share, they can retweet it with RT @username in front.
@username: Replies. The @ code is placed before a reply to another user, linking to their profile and the original message, and it can be seen by anybody.
DM: Direct message. Private messages sent directly to another user which can only be seen by the sender and recipient.
#hashtag: Relevant messages can be tagged with “hash tags” to add context and make them easily searched on Twitter. Popular tags in the past few months have been: #inauguration09, #superbowl, #nascar, #iphone. Read more about hash tags at hashtags.org.
TwitterFeed: A tool that automatically sends links to new Web posts to a user’s Twitter account. @MUjournal has a TwitterFeed which posts links to new content as it is published online.

HOW TO TWITTER:
Make an account and search for users to follow. If you don’t have a lot of friends on Twitter, try adding some of the users recommended below or search for relevant keywords like your favorite magazines, music artists, etc.

Set up your cell phone in Settings so you can text updates to your Twitter account and start talking about what’s going on in life. You can also post via various cell phone applications or at Twitter.com. Post concise updates about what you’re doing, researching or working on at the moment.

Start conversing via Twitter with friends and send relevant responses to interesting tweets you read from people you’re following.

The only way to understand it is to entirely jump in. Search for keywords of interest at search.twitter.com or follow certain hash tags. Re-post Tweets and links you think your followers will be interested in, too. Promote your blog, promote yourself.

Twitter is a useful medium to express yourself and to make connections. The idea is to build a presence, maintain relevant conversation and brainstorm with others.

Most college students are already experienced with social media such as Facebook. Try to think of Twitter as a hyper-focused version of Facebook. There is every niche imaginable with the opportunity to converse with people which you’d never thought possible.

Like anything in life, Twitter will become what you make of it. Dive in, and don’t be afraid. It will be overwhelming at first, but it can be fun, useful and valuable to your future of marketing yourself.

Recommended users to follow:
Follow us, @MUjournal, for updates, conversation and an online content feed.
@MarquetteU: The Office of Marketing and Communication provides updates about university happenings.
@Haggerty_Museum: The Haggerty Museum of Art.
@MarquetteUnivTV: MUTV.
@MUAdClub: Marquette Ad Club.
@MUSG: Marquette Student Government.
@mulaw: Updates from the Law School’s blog.
@muathletics: Official Twitter of Marquette athletics.
@MarquetteStats: Golden Eagles basketball statistics Powered by StatSheet.com.
@js_goldeneagles: Marquette basketball updates from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
@NewsHub: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
@WISN12News: Milwaukee’s WISN 12 ABC News.
@WMSE: Milwaukee School of Engineering’s radio station.
@BarackObama: President of the United States.
@BritneySpears: Britney Spears.
@MCHammer: MC Hammer.
@rainnwilson: Rainn Wilson a.k.a. Dwight Shrute from The Office.
@THE_REAL_SHAQ: Phoenix Suns basketball player Shaquille O’Neal.

Journal Staff on Twitter:
@grshutters: Greg Shutters, Editor-in-Chief
@SaraMartinez: Sara Martinez, Assistant Editor
@PJohnson8: Patrick Johnson, Features & Online Editor, The Popular Opinion columnist
@starringbecky: Becky Simo, Total B.S. columnist
@smart_blonde: Alise Buehrer, Stylephile, A’s List columnist

*Each sentence in this section is less than 140 characters.*

Read about why college students should use Twitter here.

If you recommend any Twitters or would like to add your own, feel free to leave it in the comments.

Yes, you are awesome. Brilliant, a genius, a poet for the ages. Every thought you have is so original, so witty and interesting and relevant that it should probably be shared with the rest of the world.

This is why you need Twitter.

Twitter is an online service for the narcissists, the self-important philosophers and the news-obsessed among us. It’s the voice of the people, it’s a way to keep in touch. It’s … well, it’s Twitter. It’s part blog, part instant message, part Facebook-style networking service.

I’m not really sure what it is.

According to Twitter user Josh Brzeszkiewicz, a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, Twitter “allows people to connect and share information in really unique ways.”

Twitter invites users around the world to answer one simple question: “What are you doing?” This is similar to Facebook’s status feature, although without the grammar stipulations (Facebook status updates are in the third person and start with the user’s name, as in “Becky is eating smelly sweatsocks”). Really, a Twitter update — or tweet, as they’re called by those in the know — can be anything from an interesting Web page link to the user’s most recent random thought to an actual answer to that eternal question: “What are you doing?”

It’s portable, too. Twitter can be updated from the user’s phone or from the Web site itself, and there are external services that help to make this whole process easier. This has made it incredibly easy for people across the world to share anything they want.

The problem with the Internet — well, one of the problems, anyway — is that it is open to anyone. Anyone who wants to can start a blog, purchase a domain name or join discussion forums, usually at no cost. Some of these blog writers and Web site creators have legitimate cultural, social or political commentary to share with readers.

Some, on the other hand … don’t. The Internet is littered with users who one day realized Hey! I can have a Web site, too! And on it I can share the lives of my 16 cats. The details of which, of course, probably aren’t that interesting — to normal, sane people anyway.

The same can be said of Twitter. People can set up Twitter accounts to share their every moment, of course, but it doesn’t end there. There are Twitter accounts for dogs (“SQUIRREL!”) and cats (“I hate everything and will now go hide under your bed only to jump out and bite the ankles of whoever walks past next”). There are Twitter accounts set up for fictional characters (like Darth Vader) and accounts that may or may not be updated by celebrities. You want to set up an account and tweet as Dr. McDreamy from ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy? Go ahead. The world is your oyster.

Most Twitter users, though, seem to think that there are people out there who actually care about their (usually rather mundane) lives. And apparently … there are. I am the proud owner of a new Twitter account, and while I’m still trying to figure out exactly how it all works and why I should care, I get emails frequently telling me that “so-and-so is now following me on Twitter.” Many of these people are fellow journalists or people I know. But some of them are total strangers — which is kind of creepy and weird, if you think about it.

Twitter is a unique service in that it’s (usually) not private enough that you wouldn’t want random strangers reading updates. Facebook and MySpace profiles are much more personal, but a Twitter profile is limited to the user’s name, location and a brief bio, which is limited to 160 characters. The user’s tweets are intended to be used to give the Twitter community a sense of personality.

There are Twitter users who update their accounts several times daily, to have conversations with their friends and to update every aspect of their lives. According to Brzeszkiewicz, “I use Twitter somewhat erratically. Sometimes I tweet multiple times a day, and sometimes it’ll be days between me tweeting anything.”

So why use Twitter? As Brzeszkiewicz puts it, “I like Twitter because I don’t feel like I have enough to say to write a full blog, yet I still like to put a thought or two online for people to read every so often.”

And that seems to be the trend. As the Internet expands and more and more social Web sites are developed, we are becoming more and more obsessed with sharing information about ourselves. The Internet now offers many ways to keep the rest of the world updated as to our every thought. It’s turning us into a pretty narcissistic culture, and that could be a problem. As long as you continue to remember, though, that not every thought is worthy of universal recognition, I think you’ll be OK.

Just … stop pretending you’re Patrick Dempsey, alright?

Follow Becky on Twitter at @starringbecky.