Background

Taking Candy from Twisted Strangers

Social media is available anywhere there is an internet connection. It is what brings people together across cities, countries and continents. Through SM websites, people can stay connected with friends and loved ones through messages, photos, and most creatively the meme. A unique faction of SM such as Facebook and Twitter is people with common interests can join SM groups. Literally, strangers meet and form bonds around their commonalities. In one such group, The Twisted Group, people from all over have joined and been added to voice their outrageous, comic and twisted points of view from topics including sex, drugs, games and anything people want to get off their chests. 

I was added originally from my friend in Louisiana.  For 3 months I actively engaged with the Shenanigans online, but I wasn’t satisfied to stop there. These “twisted” people were becoming close friends and family to me. Which got me thinking. With over 300 members, and ages ranging from 18 to 60, I wanted to actually know and meet these people. What were the ties that bound us together? How close to reality were their posts? Who brought them into the group, was there a common denominator? What were their backgrounds and how similar to my own were they? How could a Social Media group website bring people together to form such bonds? And What exactly made them “twisted”?

Most group members centralized in three main areas: Florida, New York and Utah, with a smattering of members across other states. My mission was to meet as many group members and find the answers to my questions. Living in Georgia currently, but being from Tampa, Florida, I decided to start there. And the first leg of my journey led me to the Tampa-Clearwater area.