iPerceptions : web analytics, attitudinal predictive customer feedback
Turn Up The Silence
Apr 28

I don't have any friends like that...

I find this video especially compelling in light of the release of Morgan Stanley’s Internet Trends report. The authors point to the fact that 16% of the worldwide share of time spent online is now allotted to social connections.

So, what does it mean if we’re all connected, but the nature of the connections is so tenuous that they prove to be of little value in a time of need? When we friend, type, post, embed, or share, do we really convey any meaning, or is the vapid, perfunctory transmission of data just a core part of the modern life?

I’m curious:

Of the 295 friends that you have on Facebook, how many of them could you turn to if you got into a rough spot and had to borrow money?

Of your 500 LinkedIn connections, how many do you think would remember your name if you asked them on the weekend without any prompting?

Of the 2,000 streams of tweets you are following, how many contain messages that resonate so forcibly with you that you would take immediate action on them?

I’m not sure I or anyone else has the answers to these questions. But it couldn’t hurt to think a bit more critically about social networking.

Michael Whitehouse
April 28, 2008
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Comments

Interesting take on social networking, Mike. I find it especially interesting given the fact that so many of us intuitively add people to not one but a multitude of social networks immediately after meeting them. As the video humorously points out, our use of social networking is often more focused on quantity of contacts than the quality of the actual relationships.

Michael Gerstel
April 29, 2008

Great post Michael - I especially loved your point about tweets. I find some of the tweets I read extremely "who cares?".

And Facebook, I don't have enough hours in the day to dedicate to that channel. Yes, I'm there, but not so much. If you are a friend and you want to reach me, email or phone me - writing on my wall is very annoying.

However LinkedIn is different. I do find it helpful in opening up business conversations. To me it has the highest value.

Carolyn Gardner
May 05, 2008