Binge and Purge
I've always been one to jump on the latest and greatest social networking sites (my home/status page is testament to this). I like to try out these sites out of my own curiosity, although every time I join a new site, I hesitate for a moment and ask myself, "Why?"
Ever since Six Degrees [now defunct] in the late nineties, I was compelled to make connections with the people I knew, through the magic of the internet. The world wide web made our own worlds smaller, and we were enchanted with the idea of connecting and reconnecting with people from near and far. With Friendster, we saw people get obsessed with collecting friends... some even likened it to Pokémon (Gotta catch 'em all!), which was rising in popularity at the same time. Friendster forever changed the definition of the word "Friend".
MySpace brought social networking to a younger (read: mainstream) audience and made itself a part of the vernacular. From then on, it got ridiculous. Social networking sites sprung up faster than anyone could count, and to this day, invitations to join someone's network litter our inboxes, and people foam at the mouth for invitations to the beta version of the newest networking site.
I feel that part of the appeal of social networks is in the ability for those of the introverted persuasion (e.g., geeks and nerds) to be able to connect to many like-minded people. We became social networking junkies, binging on forming online friendships. Why not? It's so easy... we can be friends with someone by simply clicking a button!
Yesterday, I found myself purging my social networks of people I feel little or no connection with. It was still hard for me to delete/remove/de-friend some people from these lists, so I let some of them be. What if they found out I didn't have them in my Friend List anymore? What would I say? How would I explain it? Is it easier to keep them on my Friend List to avoid confrontation? Would this confrontation even exist?
And why the heck am I so worried about this?
Comments
i've been thinking of going to a limited group of friends, but i do think it partially depends on the network and its purpose, as well as the level of interaction. good food for thought.
And why should we censor ourselves at the risk of showing vulnerability/volatility/hostility/etc. to those we don't want to show it to? Our blogs and social network profiles are apparently for our own use (and egos), why do we feel like we have to edit ourselves so much?
I guess that's where the "network" part comes in... other people are involved in a network. ;)
It's all just so curious to me.
Great post! I'm sure lots of people are thinking about this. Perhaps part of the popularity of Facebook is that instead of purging your Myspace friends list, you just start over at Facebook (which feels more private), and get a little choosier about who you connect with (at first anyways!).
One of the nice things about Vox is the ability to categorize your posts and your neighborhood peeps into a hierarchy of Friends, Family, and just plain Neighborhood. Although so far I haven't done this myself...
Thanks for starting a great conversation!
I agree that filtering here on Vox is a great feature. The different levels of public, neighborhood, friends and/or family is a good way to keep up with and broadcast with certain groups. Come to think of it, Livejournal's filtering should be a model for all of these sites!