Why Do We Care?

I signed up for Twitter this morning...For quite awhile now, I've been a one social network kind of girl. I deleted the old Myspace site and moved it all over to Facebook. Then my brother tells me I must join Twitter b/c he doesn't do facebook. He made quite a case, capping it off with "Basically twitter is pre-election Obama and facebook is Sarah Palin." How does one argue with that? One doesn't. One signs up for Twitter.
What I don't get is why are we so fascinated with the minute, constantly updated details of each others lives? Why do we feel the need to comment on them or "like" them? I don't know, but I know I visit a select group of blogs every day, I can't resist clicking on the links people put up of their latest cooking creations, and I love watching drama unfold via status updates and comments. I'll waste untold amounts of time on this. In bumper-to-bumper traffic (to avoid road rage), in the waiting room, when I'm supposed to be working, while I'm allegedly watching tv, while I'm waiting in line at the coffee shop.
I can't speak for the rest of humankind, but maybe I like it b/c I can't just sit still...Social networking is the post-post-modern equivalent of needlepoint.