Today - Superbowl Sunday - is the official launch of Socially Networked, a blog designed to explore the social and technological aspects of social networking.
I must admit, I was late to join the social networking craze. I graduated from college before Facebook and was initially opposed to sites like Friendster and MySpace. I just didn't see the point of any of it. But curiosity got the better of me - and here I am.
It goes without saying that social networking has changed the way we stay connected to others. Only a few years ago, knowing the day-to-day activities of hundreds - if not thousands - of people we know peripherally was unheard of. But thanks to sites like Facebook and MySpace, I'm privvy to the details of people's lives that I thought I'd never see or hear from again.
To me, what's most interesting is how little my online reality replicates my day-to-day life. A lot of my "real world friends" - the people I value most and see on a regular basis - don't even belong to social networking sites. My online circle, on the other hand, includes people I haven't spoken to in almost ten years. I'm "Facebook friends" with an Italian guy I met once at a party in London, but not with my best friend in the whole world who I talk to twelve times a day.
So, what do online community relationships really mean? And why do we feel the need to create digital social circles? Why do we care to know about the lives of people we don't really know?
Maybe it's that online friendships fill a void that's a product of a global society, where people live thousands of miles away from loved ones. Maybe social networks are just another means of filling the age-old human need of feeling part of something. Or maybe - at the end of the day - we just like knowing what people are up to.
What's clear is that staying connected is important to those of us who are socially networked. Why we feel that way, on the other hand, is a much more difficult thing to answer.
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2 comments:
I only use social networks for two reasons:
1. So my friends who are obsessed with them will shut up already.
2. To share photos (thru Facebook). It's a fun way to keep track of your friends that way.
I totally agree about the "inner circle" being more on the outside of the social networking world. My besties are rarely messaged on Facebook. I also have nothing to do with my Midwestern family on the internet... kind of funny, too.
Something else I just noticed... while I rarely look at applications like zombie or Heroes Ability on Facebook, if one of my besties invites me to, I'll think, "Well, this must be good if she/he's sharing it with me!"
Hmm..
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