We need a new term for the way many of us communicate these days.

I propose, “Medium Talk”.

It’s not small talk, because it is more than simply about the weather. It certainly isn’t a long, drawn out conversation, either, because we don’t get massively involved. It’s in between and I’ve found myself engaged in this sort of communicative banter more and more often of late.

I think part of it has to do with the ways in which people are becoming more connected with various people in the world through such services as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, IM programs, email, blogs, and so on. I now keep “in contact” with a wide range of people from my life, past and present, through such means, far more than I would have if I didn’t have these resources.

And yet, if you notice, nobody contacts someone via these channels and has long, drawn-out conversations with them. At least, not very often. The most common type of contact is greeting, finding out, “what’s new in your life”, reflecting a bit on those “big” things, and then either deliberately signing off or simply letting the conversation wither and die on its own. They all allow us to digest small snippets of people’s lives every day instead of taking all the details in at once during a real-life meetup. I would almost imagine that, for most people, this is an easier way of managing relationships.

I think it reflects very little on whether or not we care about the person on the other end of the string. I have genuine interest in things that people on my contact lists do every day, although the level of detail necessary can very depending on my mood. While I might not talk to Kim all the time, it is interesting to me to see new pictures of things in her life or notes on what she has done. There’s no need for a conversation; indeed, I’d be hard-pressed to find out anything to talk about should one come up, but getting those little tidbits is enough to sate my curiosity and need for connectivity.

Personally, I’m constantly amused by the human race’s need for contact with each other. We are autonomous beings, capable of enduring massive amounts of trauma, stress, and other difficulties, and yet toss one of us on a deserted island or cut off our means of communication and we all start to climb trees after a bit. One would think after this many years of evolution and adjustment that we would start gaining the ability to be isolated without cracking. But there’s a definite reason that all of these online social tools are booming and becoming so popular — we need them.

I think in some ways, our need for contact derives from our mental craving for affirmation, the feeling that whatever you are doing is “normal” or “correct” and is probably developed from a very young age. As kids, we look to those older to make sure that whatever we have done is the right thing to do — that we drew the picture the “right” way, we made a “good” speech, we behaved properly when meeting the Pope. This doesn’t disappear as we grow older, although we may rebel slightly against it, on the whole we are still looking to each other to offer approval, acceptance, and confirmation of ourselves.

So, I’m playing along with my innate need to feel connected with the rest of the world by updating my places online, writing in a blog for who-knows to read, and sparking short but informative “Middle Talk” conversations with the various people I watch online. I may not have very deep conversations with any of them soon (although I certainly wouldn’t mind it!) but for now I’m happy to stay informed and to follow along with the highs and lows of you all as you follow my antics and doings that I display to you.

I can only hope that the changing environment for staying connected is a beneficial one to more than just the networks that promote and then reap advertising benefits from it. Much of what we do as humans would be better interpreted if we bothered to communicate intention and viewpoints to each other during the process; through these networks, I can rapidly share such information with people, either in detail or in macro format, so they are forewarned or at least know my positioning on things. Perhaps someday this will result in worldwide networks of humans acting in lockstep to do good things and promote a spirit of acceptance simply by being able to see all facets of the crystal at the same time.

I think this will be for the good in the long run, at any rate. And, hey you — shouldn’t we talk sometime?