Almost hundred years ago, Hungarian writer, Frigyes Karinthy, based his short story called Chains on what can today be recognised as the power of social networking. The story works on the premise that a person like you or me can be in touch with any other person among the 1.5 billion that inhabit this Earth through a chain of five people, each person using only his social contacts. This means I may be only four people away from Barack Obama or Roger Federer.
It’s an interesting thought though nobody has tried it out. And it is pertinent in this era of growing social networking. How far does social networking take you or work for you? Everyone has many more friends on Facebook than they’ve ever had in real life. Just a personal observation- albeit with no formal data to back up- is that people who are more reclusive in real life seem to have many more FB friends. If I only look around, the most effervescent and social extroverts I know have limited FB activity but some quiet mouse may have a surprising number of ‘friends’. So does such a platform give you a chance to build relationships which can have a long-lasting, positive effect? If I think back, I have made friends online but I have never tested those ‘friendships’ for anything so far.
Or let’s look offline. Social networks- be they school and college alumni organisations or professional ones- seem to have something for us to gain and share. We share experiences and some people seem to have the acumen to get business from such fora too. If nothing else, you always feel a sense of belonging, a context for your existence. It’s always encouraging to learn that there are others who may be interested in how you do a training session or what the hurdles in writing code or selling medicines in remote areas are. You also learn from other people and they get to know you.
But there’s a short side to it. Social networks can put a pressure on you to be like everybody else. Groups can lead to ‘groupism’. You may feel the obligation to conform.
Again, the white-collared workers, the managers and the executives, don’t seem to network to negotiate the best business as we see in say, taxi and factory unions or the village groups haggling for higher returns on their land the government wants to buy.
So is the kinship of this bracket only skin deep? Does it not perceive power in group strength? What do you think?
It’s an interesting thought though nobody has tried it out. And it is pertinent in this era of growing social networking. How far does social networking take you or work for you? Everyone has many more friends on Facebook than they’ve ever had in real life. Just a personal observation- albeit with no formal data to back up- is that people who are more reclusive in real life seem to have many more FB friends. If I only look around, the most effervescent and social extroverts I know have limited FB activity but some quiet mouse may have a surprising number of ‘friends’. So does such a platform give you a chance to build relationships which can have a long-lasting, positive effect? If I think back, I have made friends online but I have never tested those ‘friendships’ for anything so far.
Or let’s look offline. Social networks- be they school and college alumni organisations or professional ones- seem to have something for us to gain and share. We share experiences and some people seem to have the acumen to get business from such fora too. If nothing else, you always feel a sense of belonging, a context for your existence. It’s always encouraging to learn that there are others who may be interested in how you do a training session or what the hurdles in writing code or selling medicines in remote areas are. You also learn from other people and they get to know you.
But there’s a short side to it. Social networks can put a pressure on you to be like everybody else. Groups can lead to ‘groupism’. You may feel the obligation to conform.
Again, the white-collared workers, the managers and the executives, don’t seem to network to negotiate the best business as we see in say, taxi and factory unions or the village groups haggling for higher returns on their land the government wants to buy.
So is the kinship of this bracket only skin deep? Does it not perceive power in group strength? What do you think?
No comments:
Post a Comment