Comments on: Are These Social Media Relationships Real?

By: Amy

Amy — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:42:57 +0000

I couldn't agree more with you. I've been unemployed for about 2 months and have found that without Social Media, particuarly Twitter and FB, I'd be very, very lonely. Some people think I'm addicted, but what do they know? They're at work all day! I see it as human interaction in the absence of a workplace. Not to mention I'm single and have no kids. I”m missing 2 of the 3 places for social activity. I also feel like I learn more from my virtual world than I ever did in the corporate world. I just wish I could figure out a way to do this full-time.

By: Lou Sagar

Lou Sagar — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:17:07 +0000

Ambient intimacy is talked about as being able to keep in touch with people with a level of regularity and intimacy that you wouldn’t usually have access to, because time and space conspire to make it impossible. Creative use of social networking tools empower us… If one is focused on connecting with people of shared interests…I think another dimension of intimacy…can be realized..
Great Post..

By: Amy

Amy — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 04:42:57 +0000

By: Lou Sagar

Lou Sagar — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 04:17:07 +0000

By: Mark Gould

Mark Gould — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 19:20:34 +0000

That's an interesting example, James. I used to be a member of CIX, the UK equivalent of the WELL (it even used the same software). I know that some people on CIX developed the kind of relationships that are often associated with the WELL, but I didn't.

I think there is an appreciable difference between the collection of tools/means of expression/websites that make up Web2.0 and the old BBSs. If nothing else, it is possible to get a much more nuanced picture of someone from their blog plus twitter plus last.fm plus friendfeed etc, than it ever was from what people chose to show in short plain-text messages. As a result, although the human dimension doesn't change, it may now be closer to what you see online than before.

By: James Dellow

James Dellow — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 23:41:56 +0000

Those relationships can be real. This actually goes back to the days of the old Bulletin Boards. You'll get a bit of taste of this from this Wired article talking about The WELL http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.05/ff_well... Of course Web 2.0 has freed us of the limitations of the old dial up BBS in ways that they could never have imagined at the time, however the human dimension doesn't change.

By: warzabidul

warzabidul — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:12:33 +0000

It's only online because those people aren't in the same geographic region as us. It's not by choice that we stay online. If going out meant we'd find many people being social then we would spend time differently.

By: Ken Adams

Ken Adams — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:42:34 +0000

Yesterday I spoke on the phone for the first time with someone I've interacted with for a couple of years in blog posts, by email, and over Twitter. But once we started speaking, she had to remind me that we've never spoken before. Our previous interaction had been sufficiently “real” that speaking with her didn't feel like a momentous step up. And I expect that meeting her in person will also feel like just another facet of our current relationship.

So yes, I think that virtual tools allow for a relationship that's plenty “real.”

By: Mary Abraham

Mary Abraham — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:19:00 +0000

Thanks, Ken. I too have had that experience. You can get to know someone through their writing in a way that’s quite different from meeting them face to face or on the telephone. And, as long as you’re dealing with the right people, you can enjoy online relationships that are richer than the intermittent insincere interactions that happen equally in the physical and virtual worlds. At the end of the day, location doesn’t matter as much as the quality of the people you’re interacting with.

- Mary

By: Mary Abraham

Mary Abraham — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:12:59 +0000

Thanks, Doug. I couldn’t agree more. Thanks to Web 2.0, I now have a much more nuanced understanding of (and appreciation for) some of my friends and colleagues than I had before. And meeting online allows more opportunities for interaction and connection than when we are limited to face to face gatherings. Of course, once you add those face to face meetings to the mix, then the relationship becomes richer. But even without that, we are better off than we were before.

- Mary