Through LinkedIn I found a few people I knew from college. When one of them was coming to town, she wanted to get together. So LinkedIn, a valuable tool for business networking for me, extended to lead to a re-connection with a college friend. It would not have been the same and had as much impact if we had just exchanged a few emails. The personal element of being face to face meant we were seriously interested in seeing each other, establishing in-person contact and enjoying each other's presence...some of that knock-around time that only comes in those lulls that aren't necessarily expressed in a call, a text, an email, a "link".
I think the least consistently useful social networking interfaces may die away over time because one can belong to only so many lists and read so many emails in a day. After all, don't people have to talk on their cell phone, especially when they are driving and eating and texting in the car in front of mine? I was going to say I am crazy and overdoing it, but wait, no, I'm not ... I'm nottt (movie reference?). Well, I guess what I am getting at is that there is an overload element to all of these things, and because you want your communication to have value (at least I hope so), you need time to write sensibly and responsibly. Editing is key. So is accuracy. So, matters of great importance will not be shared through certain avenues, and some things just demand a personal touch where emotion replaces the sensible edit. On the other hand, some people need to hide behind such a veil in order to express themselves. They find it liberating, empowering, safe...and some interesting insights and revelations/confessions may come of that. But we are human. And technology will always have that particular 'bug'. Thank God. Jennifer Vignone User Experience Design CIO Technology 245 Park Avenue, 10th Floor New York, NY 10167 212-648-0827 [email protected] Angel Anderson <[email protected]> Sent by: [email protected] 03/04/2009 03:48 PM To "[email protected]" <[email protected]> cc Subject [IxDA Discuss] Is social networking doomed to frivolity? Recenlyt I engaged in a discussion about the types of interpersonal interactions that occur on social networking sites. Mikkel Michelsen made a point about the frivolous nature of online interaction; "Whenever it's something serious, you almost always keep it to yourself" His comment left me wondering; since online interaction lacks the human elements of empathetic facial responses, body language, and touch, will social networking media be relegate to only the more frivolous types of interpersonal communication? I think the fact that we tweet silly things like our meals or a good hair day, while keeping serious events to ourselves is based on existing social norms. For example, when something really difficult happens like illness or death, people don't leave a messages, they wait till they can get the person on the phone or face-to-face. Even in person, you might not mention a sad situation to most people you encounter because it's too heavy. What can they do about it anyway? Why bring them down? Really serious, life and death issues, especially very sad or challenging experiences are usually only shared with a small group and most often those exchanges take place face to face. My Sister and I are "friends" on a Facebook, and other bunch of social network sites but there are certain sad, difficult things we only discuss face-to-face. Maybe this is because hard topics are best handled with the added information of empathetic facial responses or no words at all. When someone tells you they have cancer, a meaningful tweet or a heartfelt email can never compete with a hug. I decided to move the discussion here (from Facebook) because I'm interested to hear what our community has to say on the subject. Thoughts? Kind regards, Angel Anderson ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... 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