Intro note: This was a ghostwritten piece attributed to Tout CEO Michael Downing, published by Haberman as part of the Pioneerosis series in their Modern Storytellers publication (2012).

It can certainly be said that though we’re all uber-connected in today’s global, socially networked world, we’re at the same time increasingly distant from those around us. We walk around with earbuds in, fingers swiping madly; we sit at our computers to spend time with “friends” and we text, text, text. This is the reality of our world and our culture, today.

But what if social media actually brought us face to face? Guess what: it can.

Tout was born out of the Stanford Research Institute (birthplace of color TV and Siri, among other things) with the idea that fifteen seconds is all you need to create a video status update, and that even the most camera-shy can manage to fill that small amount of time. Given an early boost by Shaq, who chose the nascent video platform to announce his retirement, Tout has grown into a place where those we hold dear — near and far — come face to face: be they friends, family, fans, customers or interested strangers. Users can easily create and view Touts from their smartphones or webcams, and share these Touts to Twitter, Facebook, email, SMS and soon, Pinterest.

Tout has taken social media, with us all hunched over our keyboards and nose-down to our phones, and paradoxically brought us face to face.

Who is using Tout and how?

Jeff Probst Touts during broadcasts of “Survivor” to personally answer viewers’ questions. “Mashable,” the go-to source for tech and social media news, asks Touters how they use social media on weekends. Fans of Wendy Williams get to tell her if they like her shoes and if that dress really does make her look fat. Movie fans got to Tout to Cameron Crowe to tell him what they thought of his latest film, “We Bought a Zoo.” And all these interactions? Virtual, yes, but face to face.

Celebrities aside, ordinary humans also use Tout to get face to face in interesting ways:

A first time dad is Touting every day of his new baby’s life. A man in rural Kentucky Touted his deer head stew recipe and people across the country replied. Mommy friends distanced across coasts after a husband’s job change stay connected to each other and their kids by Touting. Two Tout users discovered they were Touting from the same basketball game, got in touch, and met in person soon after. A teenager created a lip-syncing contest and the replies poured in.

Tout is pioneering social media by offering a tool for users to broadcast video status updates and start video conversations — with their closest friends, or with the world. Face to face.

At Tout.com, Michael (self-proclaimed “Chief Janitor”) is famous for the launch of the “Archie Stream.” In the office, he endears himself to his employees with a daily “Good Morning, Touters!” and randomly announced “brainstorming sessions” (held at the tequila bar across the street), and eloquently delivers the weekly bestowing of the Tout Superhero Cape with the requisite pomp and gravitas.

Scott rolls in for a couple of local days each week, bringing his trusty hard-case luggage (“R2”), his vintage eyewear and sharp wit, and Skypes the rest of the week from the panic room in his Denver home. He beams with pride over sons Jackson (artist) and Graham (drummer, of The Baltic fame) and constantly name-drops bands most of us have never heard of, because we weren’t born yet. Scott’s early career involved The Dead Kennedys and Pampers, and that’s all we’re going to say about that.

David holds a passion for music, a number of patents to his name, and a doctorate in foosball. He can generally be found discussing food and philosophy at a select few San Francisco restaurants he governs via FourSquare.

At Tout, Peter is notorious for his ability to scare the life out of Tout’s interns by simply staring at them, and has been rumored to take the Tout Superhero Cape home. Peter lives in San Francisco with his wife and son and takes his cocktail parties very, very seriously.

Derek, a practicing Buddhist, lives in San Francisco with his wife, who tolerates artifacts from his world travels, and pup Charlie, who taste tests his home brews. Derek’s co-workers are anxiously awaiting the arrival of his impending West Coast IPA, and are working to suppress their concern over the strange objects of undoubtedly nefarious origin that periodically appear on his desk.

Though he’s earned the moniker of “Dr. Doom” around the office, Jason’s no-holds-barred attack upon all suboptimal mobile functionality endears us to him nonetheless. An acquirer of WWII accessories on eBay, our “man in leather” has repeatedly proclaimed an “unnatural obsession with Gary Busey” and can often be found with a Cuban and a Templeton Prohibition Manhattan at the Occidental Cigar Club.

Gardner’s contribution to Tout has been so great that the cape was not enough: we needed to lionize and torture him with a poster-size blowup of himself, which he has to look at every day. When he puts his earbuds in, turns on his broadcaster voice and turns his hat backwards, look out: he’s either talking to a major network, sports team or celebrity – or listening to a Giants game.

Melissa works and lives in New York City but makes her presence known on the left coast when she travels cross country to dismantle her fellow Tout employees on the tennis court (all but our secret weapon, that is: intern Emilee, a former NCAA Div. 1 star).

Brooke lives in Southern California with husband and son Finton, rues the day Salesforce was invented, and entertains us by doing her hair and makeup on Skype calls.