Being Sociable Loses Meaning Online

Interesting thoughts... I like where Hawkins goes here. I also believe that the value of social media connections is in what you do with them - how you choose to reach out to engage the connection. Otherwise, it's just clutter in an already-busy day. I'm also liking the idea of Facebook as the Past, and Twitter as the Future - that's how I feel too, and I think that maintaining that viewpoint is the best way to get the most out of both. At the end of the day, Social Media may be best engaged as just a step towards true "Sociability" - human interaction is still the endgame.

The following article was originally posted by Will Hawkins at: http://arryawke.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/being-sociable-loses-meaning-online/

Relationships are made face to face

Is it just me? Social networking is all the rage but it is so shallow. Don’t get me wrong. It’s terrific for finding information and making connections with interesting people. But most relationships are transitory within these tools. I expect I have made more connections and had more chats people through Twitter since 1st January this year than my ancestors had in their lives.

I just get to the point when my head is frying with the amount of information (or tweets) that I have to sift through that I want to reach for the brilliantly titled book ‘Taming the Information Tsunami‘ by Bill Bruck to cool it down. And I have learnt that I am not being rude when I ‘unfollow’ people so that I can get my life back under control and keep the guilt in check for not reading all those damn tweets.

I have noticed that whenever I join up to a social networking tool or site such as the business networking site, ecademy.com, I get a small wave of people sending a message saying something like “Hi, I’m Greg. Let me know how I can help you“. What? Are you mad or just socially inept? I have seen this today on Twitter too. “Let me know what I can do to make your day!” You can get real for a start!

I’m afraid that’s a big turn off for me when someone gushes how they want to make my life extra-super-special. It feels like the unwanted attentions of someone who fancied you at school but from whom you could not run away fast enough.

But, I am hooked by the usefulness of all the tools such as FaceBook and Twitter. FaceBook helps me keep up with my past and Twitter helps me keep up with my future. I have been in touch with some terrific old friends and workmates through FaceBook. And with Twitter, I have managed to learn vital lessons in connecting with people with shared interests, and even experience contributing to a radio programme.

For instance, the highly skilled radio presenter (William Wright at BBC Radio Lincolnshire) reminded me, unwittingly, of something very important last night on his show. Technology is poor at helping to make meaningful bonds with other people.

At the end of the section to which I had contributed, William took his headphones off, looked me in the eye and said thank you. He then asked me if I had done any radio work like this before , to which I said that I hadn’t. He then suggested that if it was easier for me, we could speak over the phone or through the internet next time rather than come into the studio.

But, the reality is that I got to know about William through Twitter. And I got to know William by sitting in his studio with him. And that is human. Connections can be made now through the internet and relationships are made face to face.

- Will Hawkins