Overcoming geographic barriers in Phoenix via Twitter

Various people around Phoenix have discussed how social media, Twitter in particular, is helping Phoenix to overcome it’s geographic vastness and develop a real sense of community. I’d felt that was happening, but something happened last week that really drove that point home.

Amy (@TheFabulousOne) tweeted that she had cleaned out her office and was getting rid of her flat-panel monitor. I’d been wanting one, so I asked how much she wanted for it. Being the awesome person she is, she gave it to me in exchange for doing some work on her computer.

A couple of days before this, my wife Tracie’s personal trainer had mentioned that his PC monitor at home had died and he now had no way of using his computer. Since we now had a perfectly good 19″ beast of a CRT monitor which we were no longer using, passed it along to him.

This kind of stuff used to only happen in more closely-knit communities such as neighborhoods. Now, it can span the entire Valley, thanks to Twitter making the entire city a closely connected neighborhood.

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View Comments to “Overcoming geographic barriers in Phoenix via Twitter”

andrewkfromaz 17 September 2009 at 10:47 am #

you do have to be willing to drive all over the place, which is a bit of a drag. so there’s still some element of a geographical barrier there, although the exchange of information is certainly much more free.