Humans are naturally social beings, we thrive when put into groups, have adapted the world to build our civilizations and revel in adventures we share with family, significant others and friends. Indeed one could say that without social connections humans would not be human at all. Even Chris McCandless (Into the Wild), the young man who wandered off into the Alaskan Frontier to try and escape people and their flaws ended up making the simple conclusion that “happiness only real when shared” shortly before his untimely death. To most of us it is our friends, family and the experiences we have with them that makes our life what it is. But in the past few years people have begun questioning, even challenging if the internet is eroding the social bonds that we have relied on for millennia.
A decade a half ago Robert Putnam wrote his famous essay Bowling Alone which spoke about how technology had isolated individuals by driving people away from the social clubs and group events that were so prevalent in earlier decades. Putman remarked that instead of these social gathers, people watch TV in what he called social isolation. While Bowling Alone was by no means the first critique of technology on individuals it was modern, timely and ironically, well circulated in part because of technology. Putman was not alone in his thinking; this critique has been made since the radio first crackled on and perhaps before. As we age the concept of new technology often seems foreign, invasive and negative as it impacts the way in which we the world functions bringing the unknown into our daily lives.
However while the radio and TV consumed time it was typically limited to short durations after work hours and on the weekend. The computer changed that. Interactive and connected the personal computer allowed us to work, play and go hours without any interaction with the outside world. And that was without the internet and social media.
Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, the names are near endless and change on a daily basis but what is constant is the exploding growth of virtual interaction. Mass adoption of these tools has allowed us to truly burry ourselves in a digital interface. We text, we tweet, we click links, consume endless amounts of data and communicate with others. But as the technology argument claims this is not true interaction that we are isolating ourselves from each other with the excuse that we are “interacting” when in truth we are hiding ourselves behind screens.
There’s no escaping the simple reality that computers have encouraged us to all step away from each other and into our own spaces. A decade ago getting updates from a coworker required walking to their desk, attending a meeting or at the very least picking up the phone. Now a few sentence email message is sufficient to get caught up. And with limited space texts and tweets interactions are only becoming smaller and briefer.
But while the TV and the radio were always about passive involvement, social media and the internet in general is exactly the opposite. Websites aim to engage users, tools look to bring people together, not keep them apart. The issue is not a lack of interaction but rather a shift in how relationships are managed and grown.
And this shift is positive for society although certainly revolutionary. Rather than being constrained in our methods of communication we have gained more access, more flexibility and a greater opportunity to choose to communicate.
Where people once sent greeting cards during the holidays we can now message our entire family and friend network in a few simple clicks and hear back immediately.
Moving to a far off city once meant all but the very best friends were lost forever. Now we can interact directly or simply observe the adventures, successes, and experiences our friends no matter where we may be in the world.
Birthday parties, weddings, and events no longer require invitations, long phone calls and awkward excuses. We merely post an event, select an invitee list and can be sitting down with friends an hour later.
Each example points to a shift. People are connecting more frequently and with a much more direct purpose yet the constraints on doing so have all but been removed.
For many the question now asked is whether are making meaningful enough contact or if we are simply talking at a list of unknowns. And there are many examples people point to from a teenage boy locked in his room playing world of warcraft to adults who sit behind their own desk twittering away on what they did that day to a list of people of whom they may have never seen.
But these are not symptoms of a lack of connection and communication but rather part of that same shift in communication communicate. Parents are worried their teenager isn’t engaging with their friends enough when they are often engaging with hundreds of friends, locally and around the world. The people we twitter with we may know in real life, may meet at events or may simply look to for information and insights like we would with a coworker. These interactions expose cultures, languages and thought processes that we may have never encountered had we simply gone bowling with the same social circle we’ve always known.
Social networking has not stopped the group; in many cases it has improved it. Before social networking the notion of keeping up with a large network simply didn’t make sense outside of business. Now we have access to everyone we want to communicate with on a level that we define.
Social networking has not stopped us from seeing each other or from wanting to for that matter. Twitter is perhaps the most cited example of social these days and also the briefest yet twitter is filled with local events including tweetups where people meet offline simply to continue to communicate in real life.
And most importantly social networking is not just about the mundane. Everyone has seen a tweet, Facebook status update or text message about a seemingly unimportant topic but is that any different than what is said in a conversation that runs into the early morning hours.
With so many messages flying at us it can be difficult to see the important facts, to make out the big picture results. However unlike in the “real world” we are forced to start with the end online. A typical face to face conversation leads with a broad, an uninformative statement along the lines of “how are you doing” and takes minutes, maybe even hours to unfold into a true opinion that we often form for ourselves. Online everything leads with a summation. We do not explain what we did first but rather that we had a great day doing this, that or the other. Social constrains us and limits us to focus on what we mean to say without all the subtleties of what ‘s in the middle and that is very, very real.
The need for connection, for interaction has always existed online. In the early days the internet was almost all about interaction with scientists and academics creating tools to allow them to discuss their theories, findings and research. When early consumers entered the market they too sought to interact and the BBS network emerged which was also about information sharing and discussion. More than a decade and a half later and with billions of dollars in commerce sales the internet is still very much rooted in the same concept – people talking to people about whatever are interested in.
So while the world has changed it is more connected, not less. People use the internet in many ways and it influences connections on nearly all levels from tracking down lost friends to setting up dinner that night. What takes place online often spills off and back and forth again. No matter what technology we invent people remain social beings and while rapid advancements have made for rapid interactions, they still have the same aim – to let us share the good, the bad and meaningless details.
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After finishing this I decided to include a personal note as this post is clearly about being connected.
I was first inspired to write this post several weeks ago after a fascinating conversation with a foreign professor of psychiatry where we discussed the issues I’ve written about here. Weeks later I got back on a plane and finally found the time to put pen to paper, or rather fingers to keys from my slightly crammed yet relatively enjoyable seat 37,000 feet above the ground. While my focus has been on finishing this piece to distribute out to my network over the next few days I’ve spent almost as much time peering out the window to my left where, between smoky wisps of white clouds, I have a remarkable view of all sorts of wonderful and unknown topography. As focused as I want to be on finishing this up my true interest is in marveling in the view – and sharing it. And I can think of no better way to do so than with a quick photo and caption posted across a few selected websites where people who chose to connect to me can experience a bit of what I am seeing today. Luckily there is no internet access on this flight so I’ve completed this post instead.
Start with the bloggers… There’s no doubt that blogs are important — some call them the new newspapers, others say its journalism simply gone digital, but either way many influential bloggers exist and top blogs have a serious reach. But does that really make blogs the spot to be? It’s a difficult question to answer. After all blogs show up well in search results, strong arguments get shared and passed around on social networking sites and in email and they exist for as long as the owner wants with archives that most other channels don’t have. Still it’s rare to hear a consumer talk about seeking out numerous blogs to do research because they are blogs. Sure some people follow a few especially as it pertains to their professional life or major hobbies but when it comes time to buy that car, to upgrade the tv or find a moving company blogs often end up as the destination because of their search placement more than their nature as blogs.
Social networks also have the advantage of pushing information out. Where blogs rely on sharing and search to be found Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace feed profile changes, status updates, reviews and loads of other content out. This exposes people who may never have been looking to all sorts of things they would never have otherwise seen and is basically a digital form of word of mouth powered by a much bigger voice.
Finally there are niche social communities. While not as well known or highly trafficked as the broad social networks, communities pull together some of the benefits found in each. Personal communications bring members together, alerts and updates reach out to networks, and open URLs make them search engine friendly and great sources for consumer research. Communities are however more fickle. It’s not simply a matter of being a participant or posting an ad; companies must find out how each works in detail and participate beyond comments about themselves and their topics. Companies must participate in many places to reach less people and must be aware of sings in focus and even ownership. When done right there’s a lot of value, when done wrong it’s asking for disaster thanks to a lot of negative comments and chatter.