Thoughts by Techxplorer

I spotted this post on the LibrarianInBlack blog this morning. This section particularly resonated with me:

… and then there are the new friend requests. A lot of these friend requests are from people I don’t know at all…but I have a sense of guilt that I would offend or upset someone if I didn’t say “Yes, I’m your friend now.” So, I say yes to all of them (except bands, authors, etc. who are looking to advertise through me). As a result, my list of “friends” has become quite meaningless. There are people on the lists who really are my friends, others who I’ve perhaps shared one e-mail with, and others who I wouldn’t know from a hole in the ground—and they all have equal weight as my “friends.”

I explored briefly two social networking sites. The first was the Library2.0 network on Ning.com, the second was a brief foray into Second Life. After signing up to the Library2.0 network I added those people who I’d worked with on librariesinteract.info or at least conversed with as my “friends”. I even wrote about joining the Library2.0 network on this post, and my concerns about the concept of friends on this post.

The number of “friend requests” I got always stayed at a steady trickle and like Sarah at the LibrarianInBlack blog I felt guilty if I didn’t respond, and yet at the same time wondered what was the meaning of it all. It made me less inclined to participate and the other day actually contacted Ning.com to have them disable my account. I couldn’t see the value in it any more. As an interesting aside, creating your account is a lot easier than removing it.

It will be interesting to see how these networks develop over time and what impact, if any, they have on societies view of friendship and socialisation in general. Other interesting posts:

• Meredith over at Information Wants To Be Free has an interesting post.
• Constance over at Ruminations also has an interesting post.