How Are You Really Connected Beyond Social Media 2.0?

A social network is a social structure made up of individuals (or organizations) called "nodes", which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige. ~ Wikipedia

Let’s keep in touch! I’ll call you. Facebook me! How often do we seriously keep in touch with our network of relationships?

Maintaining our relationships (at last count) can be a complex task that consumes much of our waking hours. However, if you want to sustain your personal and professional relationships, then you will need to decide on a system of managing and, subsequently, leading these people-orientated connections. As I have reiterated, we need to go beyond management and into the realm of leading in every relationship.

Lead, or be led. Be led, and misled.

We have a myriad of choices for connection, however we may be confused by which tools/applications are more useful and relevant for us. Too many apps on your iPhone may not be smart if some of these serve no primary function except to grace your glossy screen on your ‘mobile entertainment and communication system’. We may ‘communicate’ but do we actually engage in actual conversations, between our noses rather than between the screens.

Social psychology has led us to study human conversations, which have seemingly shifted from personal conversations to personalised communication. We possess personal computing and the like, and now it has shifted (I would not dare say evolved or progressed) to another platform. Observe the number of zombie-like behaviors in public transport, bereft of eye contact and basic politeness. The useful feature of personal communication is that people tend to slow their walking pace, becoming human obstacles during peak-hour, human traffic. We may be, unconsciously, voyeuristic in studying what people do, or even (if we are ever so lucky) be unaware of being stalked by others. Social media is definitely not for the paranoid and purposefully private, but great for the exhibitionist – if you catch my drift.

I am watching The Social Network (screenplay brilliantly written by West Wing co-writer, Aaron Sorkin), which is essentially the story about the co-founders of Facebook and their tumultuous relationships. Facebook has become a global social phenomenon. In one startling scene where Mark Zuckerberg is checking news on Bosnia, a young female lawyer exclaims: ‘There are no roads in Bosnia, but there is Facebook?’ Tributes poured in from the tribes of Apple users, when it was announced that Steve Jobs passed away. That summarises the impact of social media on us.

If one online medium or portal does not meet your needs, discard it. There are too many applications that may not serve our long-term needs. Instead of managing a stable of such relatively under-utilised resources, restrict your attention to them. Be conservative, and conserve your energies and enthusiasm for the mundane. If you connect with your tribe on one medium actively, then stay steadfast and true to one that delivers the most return on your investment. There is not clout in being cloudy in your thinking. Cloud computing will only channel you towards your confusion.

Now, back to where we were earlier: How do you purposefully connect with others? How do you enhance and value each connection?