Social networking relationships have taken a giant hit in the last couple of years. With this year just kicking off, and the traditional introspection and planning made – and in too many cases, broken already – it’s perhaps an opportune time to review the way we as individuals make and use our social networks.

For a start, let’s get on the same page. In this context, I’m using ‘social networking relationships’ to mean the people we interact with by choice. Frequency is immaterial, because ‘knowing someone is there’ is often as important as is pestering others every five minutes.

Traditionally, our social networks grew haphazardly as a result of activities we engaged in – whether formal things like school or clubs, or informal occasions such as meeting at someone else’s place by chance, and later choosing to renew the contact.

In that way, our social networks waxed and waned in numbers, in intensity, in interactions, and in tone. As we humped and bumped our way through life, the jelly-like amoeba of our social network transformed, congealed, expanded or shrank… and we tolerated or changed it.

In many ways the relationships within that social network were probably as fulfilling or as frustrating as we chose to make them. Some of us let things slide at one end of the continuum, while simultaneously exerting enormous energy and emotion in the direction of others.

And in part, it worked. And in part, it didn’t work. Life, as we know it.

The along came computers, the Internet, mobile communication devices too numerous to mention, and social networking web sites… and our world of relationships went into another dimension.

If you haven’t noticed or participated, the good news is, you’re not alone. The bad news is, you will!

First there was MySpace, then there was Bebo, then there was Facebook… and then there were hundreds of clones. Sites where you and everyone else with Internet access can set up their own social network for free.

No need for any geek-like knowledge about how to build web sites… just create an account with a bit of one-finger typing, and use the myriad of handy-dandy buttons to build a world of your own.

MySpace and Facebook dominate social networking traffic in the US, and Bebo holds strong at third place – although it dominates in the UK and Australia. MySpace attracts most visitors, but is bleeding members to Facebook, which reportedly had over 32 million unique visitors in October 2007.

That’s in a month. That’s a lot of people! And last November Google announced OpenSocial, a platform for providing applications and widgets that any site or social network can adopt. So it’s only going to grow.

One of the amazing things about such social networking sites is the way members unashamedly share their innermost secrets. Long gone are the days when a diary held such intimate thoughts under lock and key. Baby Boomers are aghast as such profligate anti-privacy actions, but Generation Y and the Millenials in particular, are totally at home with such behaviour.

Some of this was the province of online dating sites where members line up for specific introductions to further their love life. But even the biggest can’t match the information available – free, corroborated and fully illustrated – on the social networking sites.

What a feast if you’re looking to expand your network of friends!

And it’s a key point that the information about people is verifiable in a way paid dating sites just can’t match. And that comes about because of the social connections that are laid bare, cross tabulated and expanded upon, verified or questioned by peers.

In fact, researchers are becoming increasingly interested in how some of the common demographic features interact with social connections. A group of researchers at Harvard and UCLA is surreptitiously tracking an entire freshman class’ social connections using their Facebook profiles.

Years ago, researchers found that social connections correlated strongly with obesity. Once individuals became obese, the chances that their friends would follow were nearly 60 percent, much higher than the impact of siblings or spouses. That study, however, used data collected over decades from a single community in Massachusetts, making it a challenge to replicate.

This Facebook study will try to do that, exploring for cultural preferences, and how social interactions and ethnic identity interact.

It’s exciting times. Will you be able to predict your life from the friends you choose to relate to on Facebook?

It will be interesting to observe how people seeking fulfilling relationships use the power these social connection hubs provide. Whether it’s romantic liaisons, confidantes, socialising for housebound people, or exploring relationships people would never contemplate in real life, social networking relationships online are an entirely new opportunity in the social fabric of our lives.

How are you using them?

Breakup The Hope Bogeys

Filed under: Relationships

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