Nice to virtually meet you
Connect online with social networking
By Gail Balfour
Here I go again, messaging people I haven’t thought about for years. I sneak into their virtual worlds: check out what they look like, where they work, what they’ve been doing since high school, whom we have in common. Welcome to the strangely compelling world of social networking.
Sites such as Windows Live Spaces, Facebook and MySpace are popular these days, with millions of people worldwide logging on every day. But social networking itself is not new. Do you belong to a club? Band? Professional association? These are all examples of groups bound by common interests; they all speak to the human need to belong.
“Social networking allows people to create communities of interest without the limitations of geographic barriers,” says Carmi Levy, a technology trend-watcher and senior vice-president of strategic consulting for AR Communications Inc. in Thornhill, Ont.
You don’t have to be in the same city or even the same country as the other people in your group, he says. You’re linked by common interests, beliefs, likes and dislikes.
Log in and connect!
There are thousands of networks on the web; most are quite sophisticated in the way they allow people to interact. Once you’re a member you can
- look at the groups of people you know to see if you have any mutual friends
- “write on walls” (write friendly, virtual graffiti that everyone can read)
- search for common interests
- comment on other people’s photos
- send virtual “gifts”
- keep track of anniversaries and birthdays
You can even build a profile for your cat, post maps of places you’ve visited and send out invitations to live events. Kids as young as five are getting involved in their own age-appropriate networks: “feeding” virtual pets and having live chats with friends on sites such as Webkinz.
Windows Live Spaces lets you create your own radio station that streams from your web page, upload photo albums and post a guestbook for your visitors to sign. It also lets you display horoscopes, quotes of the day and even your Xbox Live GamerCard.
Many sites include personalized news feeds, which provide instant updates of what’s going on with friends. While some people find that a bit creepy and voyeuristic, says Levy, most say updates make friends seem a little closer, no matter where they are.
For example, while in the past starting a community group meant “posting a sign at your local grocery store,” Levy says now you can just set up a special interest group on your social networking site. If your interest is food and wine, juggling, mystery novels or even pugs, start a group. If you don’t want to start a new group, join one that already exists.
Levy says social networking is an especially good way to stay connected for people who spend a lot of time at home such as teleworkers, stay-at-home moms, people with disabilities, and older adults.
Degrees of virtual “betweenness”
Loren Hicks, a Toronto-based musician and management consultant, says one of the most interesting things about social networking is how it allows you to connect with new people through those you already know. Known as “betweenness,” this phenomenon takes the concept of “who you know” and extends it to “who your friends know.”
Former CIO of the online dating site Lavalife, Hicks is no stranger to watching how and why people connect. His take? It might have more to do with entertainment and curiosity than with forming deep relationships. At least at first. Later on, the frequent contact helps form and solidify relationships, he says.
And no wonder. If all your friends are online in one place, it’s much easier to keep in touch with them. In fact, you might read something in a profile you didn’t know before. Or you might discover you have more in common with that casual acquaintance.
Hicks also sees belonging to a social network as a means of having a creative voice, of saying to the world “Here I am.” You can edit photos, start a blog or even post your own band’s videos and music clips.
More than virtual
Social networking has also given Hicks the opportunity to meet people — in person — whom he otherwise would never have come in contact with.
Being a banjo player in Toronto is a lonely vocation, he says. This summer, I decided to take a road trip to connect and jam with a couple of musicians I met online. One was in L.A. and the other was in Arkansas. That was a real hoot.”
Hicks also uses more professional sites, such as LinkedIn, to hire the best people for his business because the sites allow him to quickly search for specific criteria. So be prudent in your postings — you never know who will read them. Social networks are the new place for employers to find and check out potential employees.
Social networking continues to grow. Windows Live Spaces attracts more than 115 million unique users per month. Many people use social networks as their main way of contacting friends, and people even access sites through their mobile phones.
“Social networks have become kind of like the modern-day answering machine,” says Levy.
And if it isn’t already, your social network may soon end up becoming your primary means of communicating.
