Social Networking’s Real Star Power

Everyone’s so busy attempting to gain more friends, followers and fans of their own social media sites, we sometimes forget the real purpose of social networking is to be social.

I was reminded of that this past Sunday, when I was watching a literal cosmic miracle unfold – live, over the very same social networks we’re so busy trying to grow.

Sunday night, I was tuned into a several live feeds of the Annular Solar Eclipse – one of the rarest forms of an eclipse, when the Sun’s orbit casts a shadow on the Moon, creating what’s known as a “ring of fire” visible from Earth. As I tuned into these live feeds online, I pinned numerous images of this amazing astronomical phenomenon, tweeted these pins, and shared these pins on Google+ and my other social networks.

Others commented, messaged me, or simply joined my threads, to view what I was seeing.

This struck me as what it really means to share on the social networks. It isn’t about collecting as many followers, fans or even watching your Klout score rise. It’s about sharing useful, interesting, entertaining, and as in this case, very rare beautiful images of natural phenomenon with others around the world.

One of the commentators of a live feed I was watching drove this point home: “this is the first time we’ve been able to share a live eclipse over the Internet,” he said.

“WOW,” I thought, “this is really something special!”

I’ve been Facebooking, Tweeting, Blogging and most recently Gplusing and Pinteresting for some time – but this was the first time it all came together to make real sense as to why I spend so much time on these social networks.

It’s all about sharing knowledge with others. But more than that – I made a connection with those following me that night, which bound us together, in awe as we watched the shadow of the Moon dance over the Sun.

We were all dance partners, enjoying the same solar song, at the same cosmic party. Sharing in the experience of something rare, wondrous, and wonderful.

We forgot about growing friends, fans and followers. We didn’t poo-poo those not following back. And we didn’t send out long chains of “@” mentions in the hopes of receiving a brief moment of mention back.

All we did was share our images, thoughts, smiles of delight, and amazement in this incredibly rare experience.

Finally! I understand the power of social networking.