I had an epiphany last night. I turned off my internet cynicism, a cynicism usually held for social networking, and thought about how amazing it actually is. From Facebook to Twitter to Myspace. Ok, Bebo still sucks, but that can’t be helped.
Ok, so the basis of my cynicism is that i considered social networking sites to remove the humanity from relationships, that without human contact a relationship is worthless. Then I started to think about what a true relationship is, it’s a meeting of minds and what social networking does is break down barriers to this “meeting of the minds.”
So how does it accomplish this? Well it brings people together that it would be impossible to meet in “real life” by removing the obsticle of distance, you can search for people with the same interests as you anywhere in the world without the embarressment of meeting a person only to discover you have nothing in common.
Another thing that social networking does is create a sense of community with message boards, online chat rooms and services such as Facebook groups. These communities allow people from all over the world to interact and share ideas and broaden their horizons which perhaps real world communities do not do so well. That is not to say that online groups do not create the same elietist attitudes that offline communities can also create, hirarchy and social dominance are just as prevelent on and off line.
I’ve reffered to the “real world” a few times above as if it is different to the “virtual world.” A part of my epiphany was that there is in fact no longer any real distiction, the online world is just as valid to social community as the offline world, the two are now so interchangable now that it should really just be called life. We have work friends, pub friends, club friends and online friends. In a lot of cases now the online and offline worlds mix and allow us to keep the offline friendships going online, allowing the formation of closer bonds.
So here’s to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Pubs, Clubs and the whole shebang!
