Yesterday evening my wife and I stopped by the local bowling alley to support to a group of bowlers from her work place participating in a charity event.
As I stood watching not only the bowling but also the friendly and active interaction of the 100+ bowlers, I couldn’t help but think of social networks and how real, energetic, sustaining, and beneficial the social interaction I was witnessing was compared to what is called social networking on the web.
Look up the meaning of “social” and you’ll see the word companionship mentioned in a number of the listed definitions. A companion, by most counts, is a person who accompanies, associates, lives or travels with another, physically.
The web’s vision is often turned inward, promoting it’s own realities (webalities). It’s blind to many external situations and interactions. Much of what is “hot” on the web seldom filters back to the real world. How many web “social” sites improve or impact world situations? Or how many new web technologies may even be known of in the business world?
Words that have been adopted from the “real world” to try and describe this “webality” (web-reality), often result in meanings being diluted, bent or altered.
After observing my recent example of real interactive social networking, I suspect that these web “Social Networking” sites are missing the most important ingredient of socializing…companionship.
But then, in the world of “webality”, perhaps this is as good as it gets.
Technorati Tags: companionship, reality, social networking
I guess that the same thing could be said of blogs, which is why I like to meet the people behind the screen. You and I, for example, have met on two occasions and I, personally, look forward to more. One must have that human element.
I used to bowl a lot and I sometimes miss the interaction, but never do I miss the smoke!
@Paul
There wasn’t much if anyone smoking last night…crystal clear.