Great Commentary on Social Networking
Thursday, October 11th, 2007I was going through a stack of old magazines today, and I got to a recent Time. The closing article was a humorous take on social networking sites (here). While the article was written in a fairly light-hearted manner, it touched on something I’ve been talking about with some people for a while now.
Today’s social networks (such as Facebook, MySpace, etc) are fairly immature examples of what social networking could be. There’s no real deep group aspect to most social networking sites, rather as the article hammers home, they’re simply ways to promote one’s self. Sure, there’s some group stuff on Facebook that simulates a forum with some extra features, but the primary focus is the profile page. I’ll admit that the feed does help to create a social atmosphere, but ultimately it’s just a way to draw you into everyone else’s profile pages.
My theory (and I know it’s not just mine) is that social networks will evolve into more collaborative affairs. I suspect we’ll eventually see networks where the profile page is minimalist or at least ancillary. The interaction between users will be the key focal point - not just a list of friends and favorite movies. I think as people start becoming more comfortable with relationships online and see online interaction as somewhat meaningful, this kind of group focus will become possible and more popular. Or maybe people really do only want to show off themselves.
