Building Communities on the Internet
The internet is a valuable tool - and if you filter out all the porn and spam that are at every corner, the new fad for social networking is in my opinion perhaps the most important social development since, well, the internet itself.
In days gone by (alright, 95-96 so not that long ago) the internet was seen as a great tool for social interaction. I remember 12 years ago selling an old lady a laptop and internet connection to keep in touch with her granddaughters in the USA, who had the old compuserve numbered email addresses. That was my first real introduction into the power of “connecting people” as nokia like to put it. The internet was set to join people together, to create huge online communities of like minded thinkers, to connect you more and more to the people you love, and even meet new ones. It just didnt really work out though.
I mean sure, there are lots of forums and there always have been. Forums are indispensable sites to discuss mutually interesting topics, but they were never intended to be peculiar to a group of friends. This is where Facebook, Bebo and others have really come into their own over the last year or two. I know your thinking that Ive forgotten to mention MySpace, but in all honesty I dont rate (and never have done) their community. Its merely an extension on what geocities were doing 10 years ago, while encouraging you to stick to a certain format. What MySpace never did was connect you in an online environement to the people around you - which is what the success of Facebook is down to. Its not random people on another continent, its your very own friends and family, albeit quite possibly on another continent!
Whats the future going to hold? Well, this new craze I am glad to say is surely here to stay. A great indicator to this is the fact that Ning has over 150,000 social networks on it, and Facebook is the 8th most popular website in the world at the time of writing. This is what the internet was always meant for, but along the way we got sidetracked with all the porn!
Long live Social Networking, Long live The ‘Net - Vive La Revolucion!
anyways, my calimocho is getting warm. Off to enjoy a tipple and my favourite TV show,
Buenas Tardes Muchachos,
MM
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