There are places I’ll remember
All my life though some have changed…
–From In My Life by the Beatles

Rob Crissinger and Tristan Cornett play urbanfutbol on the tarmac in front of the Oklahoma City Civic Center. Urbanfutbol is the byproduct of the Twitter phenomenon.

More pictures of urbanfutbol can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/28723966@N05/sets/72157621912742329.

The sporty tweet-up also has its own Web site, www.urbanfutbol.com.

In his book, The Outliers, one of the great Generation X thinkers, Malcolm Gladwell, establishes the premise for his book through the story of Roseto, Pennsylvania. He cites research done by a professor at the University of Oklahoma in the 1950s who discovered that the Italian immigrants of Roseto had dramatically lower instances of heart disease based on a surprising fact: they were surrounded by a rich community.

Twitter is Not a Mystery

Much has been written about Twitter, and many people remain confused or ambivalent about it, but Twitter is not a mystery. Twitter, not unlike Roseto, is just community.

Like the Beatles song, in our lives, places change. Twitter is just a new place. It’s the laundry mat without the washing machines where you pass by a stranger and ask, “What building is that going up across the street?” Twitter is the coffee shop without the expensive lattes, where you shoot the breeze and come away a little more enlightened (or annoyed). It is the lecture hall where people absorb sophisticated ideas. And, it is the annual Christmas letter by which you share adoring pictures of your children and brag about your accomplishments.

Participants, tweeps as they are called, get to build community 140 characters at a time. Tweeps tweet at their own pace, several times throughout the day; all day long or just once in awhile. Thus, the community is there when their dogs get sick; when they burn breakfast or pass a wreck on the highway. It’s there when icons die or when someone discovers the next $1 million idea.

Giving Back

Tweeps give back to their communities in a variety of ways; after all, ideas are the new commerce. Twitter is in no short supply of brilliant ideas. These are found via links the community provides. They may be to blog posts, news articles, photographs, etc. They even exist in those brief 140 characters strung together to create an impact, evoke or entertain.

Like any community, Twitter is about showing up. Communicating involves not only sharing, but listening. Twitter is reply and reciprocity, initiative and engagement.  It is the new playground for democracy. Openness is rewarded, boundaries prized.  Twitter is even taken off-screen as people meet-up in real life (tweet-ups). This is where the real magic of Twitter becomes apparent.

Average Age of Tweeps: 40

The average age of users on Twitter is 40. That’s my generation – Generation X — those of us born between 1961 and 1981 (by broadest definition). Gen X is said to be the most neglected generation in American history. The experts say the Gen X childhood and teen years were marked by profound loneliness (all those cartoons, all that cereal), and followed by an even lonelier, more stressful adulthood (the worst recession in 75 years; booms and busts, and oh, BTW, how am I going to pay for my kids’ college education?) Of course, nobody will admit to being lonely or stressed on Twitter, maybe because we’re less so all the time.

Maybe that’s why Generation X dominates social networking. It has never, in the history of mankind been easier to make friends or find like-minded people. In any given week, I engage with members of my community from Long Island Sound to Ada, Oklahoma.

#Urbanfutbol

Several weeks ago, Rob Crissigner, an independent public relations practitioner, pulled together a group of Oklahoma Cityans to play soccer on the tarmac in front of Oklahoma City’s historic Civic Center. Urbanfutbol, as it is dubbed, is the outbirth of casual tweets, just one of the innumerable byproducts of the Twitter phenomenon. People show up one night a week after work to kick the ball around for 30 minutes. They decompress. They build ties.

This isn’t just bored strangers gathering together. This is the playground of make-something-happen and it started on Twitter. This is tilling and tending by the City’s up and coming thinkers, tekkies and creative types who show up and play hard. Just below the surface everyone is aware of the unknown possibilities that exist. Twitter is the fertile soil that yields collaboration. Someday, these people will build the City’s first subway or light rail; they’ll discover new forms of citizen participation and write new laws. Alliances are forming fast and Twitter is the culture to which they owe credit. Twitter is where the early-adopting mindset gathers in droves. Twitter is the playground of the Creative Class we heard so much about a few years ago – that demographic paramount to a thriving city.

Like the Beatles sang, there are people and things that go before us; lovers and friends we still recall. Some have gone, some remain. But, all have their moments. Right now, the moment belongs to Twitter. Don’t let the moment pass you by.

**JenX is an Oklahoma blogger.  To vote for Jenn’s blog post, please leave a comment below.  You can visit her blog at www.jenx67.com.