There's an old saying that I think about more and more as I study technology and its impact on behavior...technology changes, people don't. But nowadays, I'm not so sure. I think technology is indeed changing and us along with it. Whether its through social networks or digital lifestyle products such as iPhones and Kindles, we adapting and perhaps evolving as a result.
Through social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and FourSquare, we are learning to live our lives online, revealing a bit more about ourselves with every status update, check-in, tweet and social object we publish. With the rise of iPhones, iPads, and iPods, people now march to their own soundtracks. In curious ways, we're creating a perceived introverted nation of earbudsmen, small armies of people with heads down and white earbuds complementing every ensemble.
Indeed, technology is changing and as it does, it improves how we learn, share, discover, and communicate with one another. It's part who we know and also who we should know that defines our online experience and the information that flows through our social streams.
In 2010 we saw the beginning of the shift from social graph to interest graph. In 2011, we will consider the power and rewards of curation and filtration to improve online experiences. Our networks will expand and contract until we find a comfortable cadence and caliber of relationships and information that falls between overload and scarcity. Our social streams will improve through the quality of our connections, not the quantity.
And if you decide not to follow or friend someone back, please don't take it so hard when guilt, displeasure, or disappointment is fired across your bow. We are each responsible for what we share and how we interact online, creating an alternative form of currency and resulting capital. Connections are not about reciprocity, they're about mutual value. It's freedom of Tweet, blended with a heaping portion of judgment and intent, with a dash of digital inner monologue added for good measure. The ability to publish is a right that marks a rite of passage. And in the end, we define our persona through our actions and words and earn the relationships we deserve.
Please read and share:
The 2010 Series on You...
1. Who is the Me in Social Media
2. I Tweet There I Am
3. Once More, with Feeling: Making Sense of Social Media
4. The First Amendment of Social Media: Freedom of Tweet
5. Facebook Groups Give Rise to Social Nicheworking
6. Social Capital and the Social Economy
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