Social Networking is superficial. Relationships are built not for who people really are but what they are and represent. The person does not focus on the other person’s personality but rather on what can be obtained from them. These relationships are based not on friendship but on interest. Whenever the person finds that the other is no longer valuable to them, then he or she can be dismissed and when that happens, a whole network can be torn apart. Therefore, I believe there is no real way to measure or evaluate a contact. As I was reading in “Social Network Targets the Enterprise”, I thought to myself how impossible it is to rate them, these relationships are weak and most of the time fake. It can also happen that while one person thinks they are really good friends with the other, the other might be sticking around for her value and information but doesn’t really consider them a friend.
Hence, how can you rate a relationship or a contact that in the first place is not real? Something that seems to be strong can end up being so fragile that it ends up breaking in a second and things fall apart. Where can the line be drawn to know when you are being a friend and when you are being used?
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2 comments:
Daniela-
Your post hits home with me... literally. Back home, as I am sure with everywhere else in the world (although in the 28 countries I have been in, I still find where I live to be the worst), so much of one's social value is based upon a facade that doesn't truly represent the person underneath.
People's appearances, to restate an old cliche, are only the cover, but there is so much more written in the pages... a.k.a. don't judge a book by it's cover. We as a society need to look deeper into our relationships and those around us to truly establish what is real and what is fake.
May you look around yourself and find a strong core of realism.
-morgan
As illustrated by your post, social networks and contacts and mapping is only a primary way of showing the networking that happens.
For instance, there can be a connection between 2 people that as you said is only superficial and used to advance one's career, where as another connection is true and much stronger. How do we illustrate this instance into the network maps?
Mapping should be taken as lightly as a grain of salt, and more emphasis should be placed on understanding the roles of individuals (ie the communicator) rather than the networks that they hold.
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