Ok.. so now that I have your attention. What I don't like is that I DON'T KNOW many of my social networking friends. There is a obviously a core group of individual friends and colleagues that its important to stay connected to but the fact that I don't know many of the folks reaching out to me, at first befuddled me. I assumed it was on the future chance that one day we would be able to leverage the connection to our mutual benefit. But the more these connections pile up, on LinkedIn, on Facebook, on Plaxo Pulse, the less confident I am of the potential leverage in these connections. I do derive some value -- answering questions, refering friends for job searches etc... but shouldn't there be more?
So, I moved from befuddlement (an almost ever present state of mind) to frustration at having to vet whether or not a particular individual was worth the time to connect with and I found myself accepting connections en masse (especially on LinkedIn).
Ok, so I've moved beyond frustration to acceptance (where is Kubler-Ross when you need her). Acceptance that this is the new order and I wonder how much of my mental process around this is due to the fact that I'm a late stage boomer and not a Millennial.
If I am the only one that feels this way, then in 2008 nothing much will change. But if others feel as I do, regardless of generational differences, I think we will begin to see more closed social networks, that are invitation only and align more closely with value that that particular connectedness delivers to network members.
Thoughts?
Finally someone dares speak what I, for one, have been thinking for some time now.
It's becoming much worse very rapidly as I see it. Today I got an email asking me to link to a person I actually DO know. The difference this time is that while I am already linked to this individual via LinkedIn and Plaxo, this invitation was for a completely new (to me at least) network called Spock. Why? How many ways do we need to be connected?
And then there are the throngs of people who happened to work at the same company I did, or who intereacted with me for a short period during some long forgotten project. Frankly, the mere fact that someone remembers me does not mean that I remember them. Am I obligated to link to all the folks who think they know me because I once delivered the keynote at a conference after which they asked me a question?
I think we'll see the change you predict, Steve.
Posted by: Larry Eiss | December 12, 2007 at 12:10 PM
Thanx Larry. Yes, things will evolve as it usually does. I'm optimistic for our prospects.
Posted by: Steve Mann | December 12, 2007 at 10:46 PM