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Jacob Morgan on Social Media, Technology, Marketing, and Life

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Social Networks, Bringing Us Together or Keeping Us Apart?

Started by jacobmorgan · 3 months ago

We have all seen how rapidly all of the social networks are growing.  Myspace and facebook are just 2 in a sea of endless networks.  Nowadays you can find a social network to cater to any niche you are interested in.  So with all the extra time that we are spending on like making &% ... Continue reading »

11 comments

  • Jackie Peters

    5 months ago

    Hi Jacob,

    Nice post. I've had a few conversations on this topic lately. I can only speak for myself personally. I have hands down made many more "real world" friendships through social channels than I ever would have without them. I can say that as an absolute fact. And, not only that, but my real world relationships grow and cement as a result of interactions I have through social networks.

    I view the social web as an extension of the real world, what makes it any less real? I've participated in so many social discussions, innovations and conversations that have had a positive impact on my life and others both online and off.
    reply
  • Jacob Morgan

    5 months ago

    Hi Jackie,

    Thank you very much for the insightful post. It's great to know that you can use online relationships and bring them into the offline world. I think there is a gap between the two. It's not to say that that online world is necessarily any less real, however it is "different" it revolves around ones and zero's and bits of data.

    Hope to hear from you again soon!
    reply
  • Earnest Grey

    5 months ago

    With so many social networks out there now, it's difficult finding one related to your subject of interest or marketing niche. I find Google to be inefficient as it returns too many irrelevant results. The best resource I have come across to find niche social networks is the search engine http://findasocialnetwork.com
    reply
  • Jacob Morgan

    5 months ago

    thanks for the comment earnest, i will check out the site. hope to hear more from you in the future.

    thanks for reading
    reply
  • Glenn Palmer

    5 months ago

    There is definitely a difference between online relationships and 'real' ones. Clifford Stoll warned about this twenty years ago. It goes hand in hand with cocooning, where we stay home and entertain ourselves rather than going out and interacting with flesh-and-bloods. I feel there is an extra kind of reality at large in the world and our language isn't quite able to deal with it.
    reply
  • Jacob Morgan

    5 months ago

    Hi Glenn,

    great points. i agree with you and also think there is a huge difference between the two types of relationships, I also think one can strengthen the other.

    thanks for reading and commenting, hope to here more from you soon!
    reply
  • Juha Huttunen

    5 months ago

    Hi Jacob,

    A good post! I definitely use social networks to support my real life connections. They definitely are not a subsitute for meeting people face to face. They also provide a way of keeping in touch with people that I don't necessarily otherwise meet too often. I agree that it's by no means the same as meeting those people face to face, but without social networks I might lose touch with them altogether.

    For some people they seem to be much more, even coming close to replacing real life. I don't know if that's the trend but I sure hope it's not.

    Now I'm talking about general social networks like Facebook here. When it comes to niche purpose networks like LinkedIn then it's another case. They actually can provide real benefits for the user too. :)
    reply
  • Andy

    5 months ago

    Jacob,
    These are brilliant questions -- i love this post.
    I look at my social networking efforts (twitter, facebook & linkedin) as an a potential link or a tie to real world, real people and real solutions. But i treat these networks with the same approach that I have in the real world -- and to me its the key to this answer. In other words i don't scan page by page looking for facebook friends, don't invite people to join my network just because they are out there. I try to seek out the 'like minds', whether i know them or not. Sometimes this model works, sometimes not. But i must say, I am very happy when a social network 'friend' or connection ends up being a real world connection as well.
    Like most things in life, the quality of these online relationships depend greatly on trust, honesty and personal transparency.

    Andy
    reply
  • Jacob Morgan

    5 months ago

    @Juha
    i agree, social networks are definitely no substitute for in person connections.
    thanks for commenting, when are you coming back to sf to visit?

    @andy
    well thank you so much for the compliment!
    I agree with you, I think social networks are great for meeting like minded people and make the in person connections that much more powerful.

    thanks both of you for reading and commenting, hope to hear more from you in the future!
    reply
  • Aaron Stannard

    5 months ago

    Saw this via the conversation you started on LinkedIn. I like the post, but those videos are going to haunt me for the rest of my life :(

    In all seriousness, Twitter does have some major noise control issues. I usually unfollow people at the first sign of "giving my dog a bath," "I TOTALLY LOVE CEREAL," and so on.
    reply
  • Jacob Morgan

    5 months ago

    @aaron
    haha they are rather haunting aren't they? there are definitely some people on twitter that are on there to boost there own egos, of course that is another discussion. i try to post relevant content when possible, and try to share interesting stories/links/etc.

    thanks for commenting and thanks for reading, hope to hear more from you soon!
    reply

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