We're fresh at Geary Interactive.
Subscribe to our blog to get a taste of our perspectives, ideas and endless ingenuity.
-
Is there an Online vs. Offline Friend Divide?
Posted on June 30th, 2008 No commentsIn the age of social networking making friends has become a whole new endeavor. When you join a new network there are options to import your “friends” from your outlook, hotmail, gmail, and sometimes even other social networks. However, has the definition of a “friend” changed due to social media?
I posed this question on Twitter (keeping in mind that I have a pool of internet marketers in this portal) and got responses that seemed to fit with my beliefs on the subject. For members of the “Facebook Generation” such as myself, the ratio of actual friends to online friends depends on the social network you are discussing. For this group Facebook offers the most actual friends followed by LinkedIn. These portals are used as an easy one stop connection to people you have a personal in-person relationship with. I have personally met roughly 95% of my Facebook friends and about 90% of my LinkedIn. Twitter and Plurk offer the least amount of actual friend interaction. Respondants from my generation use these mircoblogging portals to connect with experts in their industry and follow quick news updates. I personally know about 30% of my Twitter connections and even less for Plurk.
For slightly older participants, there is little connection of in-person friendships to their online ones. LinkedIn finds the highest number of actual friend connections with no mention of Facebook or MySpace. Twitter again was called out as a social portal that offered connection to online only friends. The responces I got from these participants stated that it is not engrained for them to connect with their actual friends this way. Emailing, phone calls, and texting(suprising) were their main ways of connecting to their in-person friends. They use online communities for research purposes, to share their personal insights with industry professionals, and to try and not fall behind the online curve.
So what does all of this mean? How does this break down for even younger generations? Do we now have close friends, friends, friends of friends, aquantences, close online friends, online friends, online friends of friends, and online aquantences? Any thoughts? What is your make-up of online vs. offline friends?
2 responses to “Is there an Online vs. Offline Friend Divide?”
-
To be perfectly honest, I don’t let all my online friends in unless I know them enough to feel comfortable. I don’t do “Limited Profile” stuff on Facebook; it’s all or nothing. With that said, I add people with discretion — if I know you online through some capacity and in a lengthy capacity, you’re on the list. If not, you’re not.
I actually wrote something about this a few months ago, and it still holds true today. My friendships online vary per social network, but I like that. Here’s the post with a detailed breakdown of how I network on LinkedIn, Facebook, Friendster (yup), and MySpace.
-
Thank you for your insights.
I have a similar mentality about making online friends, with the exception to twitter and plurk. On other social networks, I will only add or except if I know who the person is on a more personal level (The least of this personal level being I met you at a conference, making up that 5% I don’t know that well). I refuse to do the limited profile also (I am who I am and if the fact that I like the Minnesota Twins really bothers someone, we probably aren’t a good fit). On twitter, I have been a bit more liberal with my following. I looked to follow anyone who could possible offer me some good insights on my industry and its happenings. I have pulled back on this practice some, but still feel it is valid for the microblogging platform.
For you Tamara, I would imagine you have a much tougher time sifting through the requests you receive (2450+ on twitter alone). That would be a full time job within itself
Leave a reply
-
Gearyi Flickr
Tamar Weinberg June 30th, 2008 at 10:11