Struggilng with Technology

     I grew up around computers.  At thirty, I am one of the first generations that can say they grew up with home computers and the internet ("mid" Generation Y).  My family, specifically my father, insisted that I learn how to use them, learn typing skills, learn HTML, learn what they considered the "basics."  I did.  I spent the entirety of the 90's on the internet and learned the rules of etiquette.  Of course, at the time there were basically only chat-rooms, bbs, and some forums to "worry" about.  And they basically had all the same rules.
     I have always had the hardest time with social interaction, as can be seen on this post, even online I was awkward.  The good thing about the internet is that chat-rooms  and whatnot had such rules as "Try to say 'hi' to newcomers and make them feel welcome."  You could always sit back and observe what was going on in the digital world and get an idea how to behave and not seem like the creeper you would be in real life.  It helped that the internet was fairly new to most people, and they remembered a time when they too knew nothing, or worse, there were no rules!  I was on Open Diary for the longest time (from about 1999 to 2003, and then again in 2006-2007, and again in until 2010), which is like a protoplast for modern blogs with a real sense of community.  Even that had rules that you needed to learn, and language too.
     Some internet language was easy to pick up because it could be reasoned and picked up in context.  Also, in the 90s there was very little ridicule for those who didn't know what LOL meant.  Perhaps I got old, perhaps I got rusty, but the internet is a very strange and frightening place any more.  I recently signed up for Twitter and am completely lost.  Tagging people?  Hashtags?  I'm not even sure what Twitter is supposed to be for, or how to properly use it.  Making it worse is the fact that since it is already so established it is hard for newcomers to get a handle on it.  Or at least that is what I find.  I don't even like the idea of Twitter really.  How is limiting what you have to say to 140 characters useful?  It takes me that long to say virtually anything!  Trying to meet new people via Twitter--how exactly is that supposed to be done? 
     And it's not just Twitter, there is Digg, G+, Facebook, Reddit, Tumblr, so many communities with their own language, their own sets of rules for behavior.  It makes it hard for people to know, without research, what to do.
     Even worse is that as more and more people have the internet there seems to be the trend of people becoming internet elitists and openly mock those who perform faux pas on their social media site of choice.  Since when did this become common practice, and where was I?  Yes, there is plenty of information out there on these sorts of things available online.  What happened to good old fashion human interaction though?  Do you like sorting through menu after menu on the telephone trying to sort out your problem, or do you want to speak to a live person?
     So aside from attending workshops that make you feel old and incapable, what other ways are there to learn every exploding communities and how to properly use them?  I certainly am not so old that I should be so out of touch with the digital.
--JJM