Social Networking - who cares?

If there were ever a loaded question - this could be one!

So a friend (ok many friends) have said things to me like, "What's the point of FaceBook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc?! Who cares?! Who needs to know all of this stuff anyhow.... I'm at home, I'm at work, I'm eating... whatever..." Based on those questions / protests I thought I would write about just this idea... Social Networking - Who cares, and, why is it even important anyway?

As a telecommuter who works across many timezones and geographic regions, I had my own reasons for believing there is some kind of magic connecting glue produced in Social Networking land. So I thought I'd try to build on that and start with some reading to learn more.

In a recent study done by Microsoft regarding 'why people used social networking tools' the following results were found:

1. Keep in touch with family and friends (75%) [part of this is keeping up with the joneses who already have one - eg. my mate uses it, so I'll get one too]
2. Being "nosey" - 62%
3. Express my opinions and views (55%)
4. Meet people with similar interests (49%)
5. Specific reason, documenting trip to wedding, etc (13%)
6. It's a good way to date (7%)
[Source: Social Networking Statistics]

These findings seem logical and accurate enough (at least based on what I've seen). However upon further reading it has become clear to me that there's something bigger going on here.

Quite possibly the biggest advantage and change that social networking brings about is - the ability to easily form groups with NO cost - where cost can be defined as money, time and effort. These groups then allow for one-to-many or many-to-many communication with ease never before possible.

This is a distinct change from the past where media tools (like Television or Movies) provided only a one-to-many type communication AND in that setting there was no channel for reciprocal (or back and forth type) communication options. The many-to-many communication ability (fostered by social networking tools) provides power and value to masses through a group communication or group setting which they did not have prior to the tools existence. Additionally, as the tools are asynchronous (as in - people don't need to match times available like on the phone) and not geographically or physically bound there is a much greater ability to spread a message further and wider then ever before. Those messages and subsequent reactions can therefore grow and linger for a much longer period of time.

" Groups of people are complex, in ways that make those groups hard to form and hard to sustain: much of the shape of traditional institutions is a response to those difficulties. New social tools relieve some of those burdens, allowing for new kinds of group-forming, like using simple sharing to anchor the creation of new groups..."
[Source: p26. Here Comes Everybody]

In his book, Here Comes Everybody, Clay Shirky provides stories and evidence that social networking tools allow people to gather, easily, at no cost, asynchronously, and with no geographical barriers to participation. These stories include:

• A woman who lost her phone and how she and a friend were able to gain attention, gather information, break through bureaucracy, and get the phone back
  
• How a group of catholics were able to make progress on institutional battles with the Vatican as never seen before
• The formation, evolution and maintenance of Wikipedia (a labour of love so to speak)

With a good set of tools, little to no funding, little to no time given by any ONE person, collective group sharing and subsequent action - powerful things can happen.

It's also important to remember that humans use of technology will ALWAYS lag behind that technology. So, we are lucky to be in a time where we are watching communication evolve and thereby have the chance to possibly watch society evolve as well.

Cheers and happy Social Networking.

Additional Resources:
Weblinks to the real life stories in Here Comes Everybody
- page 1
- page 2