You don’t have to be a communications professional to recognize that the biggest trend of 2010 is the phenomenon of social networking.

The convergence of ubiquitous broadband and mobile online access has amplified the impact of traditional word-of-mouth communications in ways no one could have imagined just a few years ago. For most of us, social networking is an indispensable part of our daily lives, despite the fact that it didn’t exist just a few years ago.

Shifts in communications technologies often foreshadow massive cultural movement. From papyrus to the printing press, the telephone to television, technologies that allow human beings to share information inevitably propel us forward in unexpected ways. The fact that we are now able to communicate so easily and openly marks a critical moment for our community.

As a whole, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community has effortlessly gravitated toward social networking. Finding one another online has integrated easily into our sense of community. We go online to find friendship and support, to organize for political and social change, and to maintain the connections we’ve made along the way. These connections, both personal and political, bind our community together in new, and very exciting, ways.

Connectivity, more than anything else, continues to fundamentally change the world we live in. The more connected we are as a community, and the more organized we are as a movement, the more likely we are to achieve the ultimate goal – equality.

Image Credit: Social Grow