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You may have noticed that I have blogged about online fantasy sports and iPhone games before. What turned me on about those apps was their phatic nature which means they–

• allow rich emotional and social communications
• keep connections alive with an intimacy and familiarity otherwise difficult due to time and space constraints

Let me explain this with a recent example that hit very close to home for me. Its the story of me and my college roommate Anne. Anne and I were the best of roommates, but we had nothing in common.  We had a great year living together, but after that met up for dinner only once or twice during college.

This is not because we grew apart, but just because conversations were much easier when we had the shared experience of living together. Things have remained very much the same after college. She’s a lawyer, I’m a techie. She lives in Maryland, I live in California. She likes stuff, I’m a minimalist. But recently she became my neighbor on Farmville. And viola we have a shared experience to talk about! Here is the first exchange after we become Farmville neighbors:

The game is phatic as its helping Anne and me establish the following:

• I exist, I’m ok
• you exist, your ok
• our connection exists, is active, and is flowing

And its a much more powerful and entertaining way to do this then a quarterly email. Thank you Farmville!

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