I was flipping through my Facebook page this morning and came to startling realization: there is not a single difference between my social media clique, and my real world clique.
I don’t use “clique” in the context of high school lunchroom politics, but in the context of my day-to-day interactions. The same folks with whom I kill time at work, grab drinks on the weekends, and play basketball are the exact same people I’m shooting the breeze with on Facebook and Twitter. Always.
I was floored.
At a high-level, social media exists to introduce everyone to everyone else – or at least that is what I always thought. MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, etc. all serve distinct purposes and offer unique functions, but at the end of the day they subsist on lots of people wanting to connect with lots of other people, many of whom they would not otherwise come into contact with. The potential that social media has to introduce completely different people to one another is what drew me to it in the first place.
I thought to myself that “I should be networking with Kiwi entrepreneurs and swapping music with Taiwanese college students, not BSing with my roommates all day” (not to say that’s entirely bad, or unentertaining…)
But I had failed to do so. With an overactive Catholic guilt complex in full effect, I began catastrophizing the detrimental impact that a regressed social media outlook can have. “Not only do I just keep up with the people we know, I don’t even talk to the people we know – I just Tweet, Facebook, etc. What is the world coming to?”
When I came back down to earth, I conceded I was not the harbinger of death for modern communication, just someone who was missing out on massive potential in my own online networks. That being the case, I’m issuing a challenge to myself, and to anyone else who’s interested:
I’m taking 1 hour, each day, for 3 weeks to expand my work and personal social networks beyond my current cliques/comfort zones. I will “facebook friend” friends of friends. That means you Michael Barrazza, Vanderbilt Alum ’07. I will join groups with whom I have zero affiliation, and see what I can learn. Here I come ”Yes, I am from Bristol”. I will Tweet-stalk complete strangers, and Retweet their insights. Prepare for fame @tbrunelle.
I’ll report back in 3 weeks with progress, and encourage y’all to do the same.
