Since some readers have challenged my stance on social networks and their effectiveness in creating friendships, I will repeat here what I have written in my comment to Adi:

“I agree that through blogging I have made many good friends. However, I don’t agree that you cannot make an equal amount of friends on social networks. You simply need to invest more in it. Read people’s profiles, learn about them, get to know them by contacting them, commenting on their posts, etc. I think that perhaps people are just not used to making the same kind of effort on the social networks as they make when reading blogs.”

Kfir writes on his blog:
“I believe that social networks are as good as the way you use them. There are so many of them out there, and every one has its own angle. But I am just one guy, and don’t have a lot of time to spare on maintaining all those profiles (I need to work sometimes). So sometimes I am adding people to my network even if they are far from being friends.”

I believe that one of the reasons that people feel they are not making the same deep connections on social networks as they are through blogging is because they simply don’t invest enough time and effort in getting to know the people in their community. When you enter someone’s blog, you make a conscious effort to sit and read what he has to say, even if it takes a little while. If you spent the same amount of time on social networks, reading people’s posts, getting to know them, writing to them, I can promise you that you’ll make some good connections after all.

I think that a great problem many social networks are facing now is an over saturation of social networks that are very much the same. I have written about this previously in my post I am Thinking of Opening a Startup. Many people feel a constant need to get on every social network out there, not investing enough time and effort on their profiles nor on getting to know others in their community, even if they are listed as their friends. Then all you have is a bunch of online communities filled with people, but no good content or interaction. This is why I believe that those networks that will be the most unique and do the best job in encouraging their users to really get more active and involved, will outlast the others.

The last issue I want to discuss is this: We as humans are not capable of handling the amount of online friendships that we hold. Can you imagine maintaining a good, close level of friendship with all your online friends constantly? It is impossible and I am not telling you to go ahead and do that. However, there are people here and there that will grab your attention, just by skimming through their profile page, you will find bits and pieces that really interest you. You will see that if you invest a little more into those relationships, you may find yourself with a few good new buddies who probably also happen to blog but out of all the millions of blogs out there, never got around to reading yours yet. In the end, making connections is very fulfilling no matter where it takes place. I have met many interesting people through blogging and also through my social networks. I refuse to favor one over the other. I love both. Is that so wrong?

Thanks again to babybluebbw for the pic.

Technorati tags: blogs, social networks, friends, connections, kfir pravda, adi avnit, startups, community, web2.0

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 31st, 2007 at 2:33 pm and is filed under Blogging, Social Networks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.