Jeff Axup said (with what I perceived as a touch of irony, and I think not too seriously): "I really like this quote - 'people are, just, well, bored of social networks.' As if humanity will ever be bored of social networks, considering that we have been happily using them for thousands of years."
Not like this. To compare this technological simulation to a true social network is to say you've been skydiving because you watched a video that was taped from the point of view of the guy who actually did it. It has some value if viewed with sufficient empathy (we supply that ourselves), but lacks the validation needed for a genuine experience of society. What do Facebook, MySpace, et al *not* have that traditional social networking has? Things like body language, eye contact, genuine social context, validation that you are in fact talking to another 16-year-old like yourself ... In short, they lack the element of trust -- in part because participants have whatever degree of anonymity they choose to have. Whatever other metrics are applied to assess the decline of online social networks, I think this lack of trust will be the bottom line. We'll have heard one too many stories about people who pretended to be something they aren't, and others getting hurt in some way because of it. I do think that online social networks can be a valuable way to reinforce existing social interactions, but it seems unlikely to me that they could ever stand alone. Nor should they. I can't imagine calling any group a society when all their interactions are superficial and transient. Anything that evaporates in a power outage is not a society. Thank you, Murli and everyone, for some very thought-provoking ideas. I'm enjoying your comments very much, in spite of my uncertainty about your existence in real time and space. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=25387 ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
