The past week has been a rather hectic in my neighborhood, since we learned someone had taken pictures of children in our neighborhood and was posting them online. The neighbors have been meeting and we all quickly learned that it should not have taken a terrible incident for the neighborhood to meet. I have over 5,000 twitter followers and almost 2,000 "friends" on Facebook, but I didn't really know many of my neighbors.

It is easy to briefly wave as you drive by a neighbor in their front yard or say "hello" to someone as you're walking down the street. But before last week, I didn't know the names my neighbors that I've seen walking down my street, playing in the park by home, or shopping at the local grocery store.

One of the important lessons I learned this past week is that social media has a role, but nothing can top talking face to face with your neighbors. So my advice is get off social media and get social by meeting the people who live in your neighborhood.