Social media is clearly playing a crucial role as a communication and networking platform in the protests in Iran over the election results.

Much of the media attention has focused on the role of Twitter, with even talk of a Twitter Revolution taking place in Iran.

There is no doubt that Twitter has emerged as a powerful tool, used by protesters to organise, report and share what is happening on the ground in Iran.  And it demonstrates how new technologies allow people to bypass censorship by authoritarian governments.

But Twitter is more than a way to transmit information.  As a form of social media, Twitter is also a way to connect.

In this case, the content of an individual tweet may be less important than the emotional and relational content being transmitted. Researchers describe this distinction as contents-oriented communication versus connectedness-oriented communication.

The stream of tweets from Iran are creating a loose relationships between the people sending out the messages and those following them.

The effect is to create social bonds between people inside and outside of Iran.  Perhaps the clearest sign of this is the appeal for people to switch their location on Twitter to Tehran and change their time stamp to Iranian time.

The raw, unfiltered and immediate nature of Twitter is engaging people in shared experiences, even if they are miles away from Tehran.

What is unknown is the strength of these social bonds and whether the sense of connectedness created by social media such as Twitter will have an impact on events on the ground.