Twitter, shunning, siberia and solitary confinement

During my travels earlier this week, I had the pleasure of listening to Michael Nicholas of Carat present about the fundamental importance of social connections and the impact of groups on individual behavior.  Since then, I keep thinking about one particular point he made -- I liked it enough that I'm bound to steal it and stick it in one of my own presentations somewhere down the line; but in the meantime I wanted to share it with you.  It's good brain-fodder and goes something like this:

You can understand a lot about the importance of social connections by looking at the punishments we bestow upon individuals who do wrong. 

By way of example, Michael pointed out that our criminals are locked up in jails and prisons -- taken out of the community and largely cut off from their normal social connections.  And what happens if you do something particularly bad when you're in prison?  We put you in solitary confinement, cut off from all social interaction.

Think about it; solitary confinement might be one of the most extreme examples, but you can easily find plenty of others if you look around. 

The Amish shun individuals who stray from their society's core beliefs.  A child who misbehaves is likely to get a 'time out,' which generally entails having him sit alone for a short period of time; a rebellious teen might get sent to her room or, if the offense is particularly heinous, grounded. 

The age-old Russian practice of banishing offenders to distant and sparsely populated Siberia has become a common analogy for virtually any fate worse than death (like being reassigned to a remote field office or a back-office department or division of your company.)

Not inviting someone to your party because they aren't cool enough?  Cutting off ties with a friend or relative who offended you in some way?  Yep, all part of the same thing.

Community is important.  It always has been.  In fact, it's fundamental to who we are.  Humans are pack animals, social creatures. 

Is it any wonder that those of us who turn to the web for community get a bit frantic when the social computing tools we use to connect with other people stop working, even if only for a short while? 

For the digitally inclined, a day without Twitter (for example) feels like banishment to Siberia (er, Cyberia), not because we love the technology so much but because it strips us of much needed interaction with our friends and peers.  Sure, this is a trivial instance and not really a 'punishment' even though, at the time, it might feel like the Gods 2.0 are punishing us.  But it seems that the inability to connect with our online network (the people, not the technology) is one part of the bigger whole; and one of the reasons social computing technologies are so important to so many people.

This last bit probably doesn't seem profound -- it isn't -- but the notion of understanding the importance of community by understanding the nature of punishment certainly forces you to consider this whole social media thing from new, interesting angles.

That's what I think, at least.  How about you?