MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, Craigslist, LinkedIn, Nerve,
Meetup, Tickle and SecondLife.com – ask any of your
twenty to thirty-something co-workers or cohorts, and chances
are they’ll know exactly what you’re talking
about. More likely still, they probably keep a profile (or
two) of their own on one of these social networking websites,
and are connected to a regular “virtual” life
outside of the workplace – a life complete with spending
time with their friends, gossiping, arguing, shopping and
dating, among other pursuits.
As 24-year-old writer Theodora Stites explains in a recent
article in The New Yorker:
My life goes like this: Every morning,
before I brush my teeth, I sign in to my Instant Messenger
to let everyone
know I’m awake. I check for new e-mail, messages or
views, bulletins, invitations, friend requests, comments
on my blog or mentions of me or my blog on my friends’ blogs.
Given Stite’s explanation, it sounds like a sub-culture
of people just getting together to informally share their
hobbies and make friends through the internet, yet those
unfamiliar with these new social networking practices should
not underestimate their power to fundamentally change the
way we communicate.Whether we’re all in accordance with this movement
or not, it’s happening. Millions of people are developing
relationships in ways that they never have before - personal
relationships and business relationships.
The potential market for business networking in this realm
is enormous. The Internet makes it possible for individuals
or organizations to become involved in communities where
they can easily search for other people according to their
personal filters, such as industry, geography, or personal
interests. On LinkedIn, for example, you can specify whether
or not
you’re willing to accept contact regarding deal proposals,
and you can limit your searches only to people that are.
As writer’s David Teten and Scott Allen, of FastCompany.com,
comment: “It’s the yellow pages on steroids.
You can be highly focused in a way that’s impossible
in person.”
Participants in these social networking sites are also able
tap into a “built-in” online audience whose connections
place them in touch with their connections' connections
(and so on until it begins to resemble the six degrees of
separation theory!). Stites explains this pyramid effect
perfectly: “I click through the profiles of my friends
to the profiles of their friends (and their friends of friends,
and so on), always aware of the little bar at the top of
each profile indicating my multiple connections.”
The power of this exchange has no direct parallel in face-to-face
interaction. Considering how networking is primarily driven
by the relationships we form, these social networking websites
are revealing as to how and why we incorporate as much technology
in our lives as we do. We want to be informed, engaged and
connected to the world, and we want to meet people. Generating
revenue and creating new business opportunities is just an
inevitable offshoot of these desires.
Already, we hear of stories in the media of young, techno-savvy
people using technology to “jump-start” their
incredible careers. Consider 17-year old Alex Favin, who
placed his short films on MySpace and is now working out
a deal with a cell phone carrier looking to use them in mini-broadcasts
that will be available on cell phones across South America
and possibly the United States as well.
“The possibilities are endless,” Favin said
in an interview with The Philadelphia Weekly, “Before,
you had to have the entrepreneurial spirit to go out and
hustle and sell your stuff, make it happen to make ends meet…Now,
in the comfort of your own home, you can put your stuff out
there for a world of people to see.”
Starting with the media, this generation is re-distributing
the balance of power. What worked for somebody like Favin
was that he was able to both create and connect with a community
already out there. Websites like MySpace are not just static
posting communities, where one enters a profile, a picture
and provides links to any work that they may have published
or created, but thriving, living, (and for all intents and
purposes) real spaces that encourage dialogue, discussion,
controversy and intimate human interactions.
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