I read an article by Larry Carlat in the New York Times where he describes his Twitter addiction and his loss of job, marriage, and toll on relationships and productivity.

I have been using the internet as an escape from unhappy circumstances in life. I switch on the computer first thing in the morning, switch it off last. This person spoke of making 20-30 tweets in a day – I likely make five times that at least on a slow day. Every person in real life thinks I am an “Internet addict”. I see the internet as my sanity in an abusive environment.

I find it difficult to attribute wholesale intent. But the article rubbed me wrong. I don’t think the writer makes any direct general claims, but plenty of people forwarding it to me did – seemed like self-hate seeing as how they tweeted it to me.

Posting 20-30 times a day is posting about once an hour. I fail to see how this is dysfunctional or obsessive. But then, I think it isn’t wrong to post hundreds either, so ignore me on this, maybe.

However, he goes on to describe an addiction that seems like a constant presence on Twitter – which is fairly true for me too.

However, what I do on Twitter, is vastly different from what he describes. My interest is in publicly being a citizen, and looking at dysfunctional aspects and finding solutions. I blog for the common man. Twitter has thrown open a whole world of ideas in an extremely concise and fast form. My reach has expanded. My knowledge expands daily.

Man is a social animal – we aren’t designed to be islands. In a world where I am not able to find supportive voices at home, I can keep my sanity by making tweeps my family of the heart. I have shared joys, sorrows, inspirations, hurts, reached out for help, found it, reached out to help, made a difference. In the process, I also get the much needed human contact I shy away from in the real world.

It IS human contact. Twitter is another form of communication. It isn’t interacting with a machine. The anonymity of the internet to me takes away the clutter of stereotypes – where anyone can be anyone and sets us free to see what really matters – the quality of the contact.

Discounting your own actions like that is like abandoning a part of yourself as unacceptable.

It is sad that this person saw the social media as so inconsequential, because with the kind of following he describes, his next job should have been in social media. Then he need not worry about spending too much time on it, and his employers would be happy for his involvement.

Twitter is a tool. You can use a pencil for writing a love letter or a suicide note. The pencil in itself has no particular quality, nor does it tend to make you use it for certain purposes.

Other people too demean social media as a lot of noise without action. This is also not true. If you expect action on everything, then there is no point looking at a medium for conversation. Even people sitting in a chair and talking all day cannot expect that they will make a change unless they actually make it. And change can be made in many ways including twitter.

I have seen Twitter take on some really large challenges. Be it coordinating after terror attacks, blood donation, promoting bone marrow donor registration, cricket scores, rallying in national crisis, spreading traffic information, debating political issues and understanding our country better, finding an audience for ideas, updating live news and spreading it blazingly fast, giving voice to things that need it. Organizing help, even bringing on media attention to a worthy cause.

In the last month or so, I have helped a case of a dowry murder find help – Naina Singh. I have helped bring media attention to the murders of Keenan Santos and Reuben Fernandes. As I write this post, I am just relaxing from a tense half an hour organizing help for a person who met with an accident and was alone, injured in a car accident, bleeding, robbed and without help with emergency lines not working. These are the life and death ones. I support causes all day, often. Out of these, I dare say many make a difference.

Is this real? I think the question to ask is if this person is real. A real person makes meaningful communication no matter the medium.

As more organizations and journalists increasingly use Twitter, it has become an important space for being able to influence those in power, because Twitter is not only an open forum, but also a networked community of individuals – a society.

The much ridiculed RT can spread an idea far and wide. Those it doesn’t relate to it simply scroll through. But those in position to help find that trail of humanity and in a barely noticed way otherwise, a needy person is in touch with those who can help. Today’s man could have bled to death without assistance.

And yet, I am able to drop all I am doing when my son calls me. I play with him, take him for walks, sing to him, tweet with him in my lap. I have a website for him. He has fans on Twitter. He gets friends keeping an eye out for both of us when the home situation is so iffy.

At the end of the day, it is the way we use anything, lose ourselves in it that matters. Otherwise, the same problems will haunt no matter where we go.