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Thursday, June 05, 2008

Interconnectedness

I got one of those invitations to be LinkedIn to a social networking page. I recognized the person, so I said yes. Later that morning, that same guy, who is a sales rep for a database service we use at work called to see how we were doing with the service. (I had previously spoken to him and complained about the interface of the database.) This led me to ask him, "what's the benefit of the social network?" I can if he can just call me up, I don't need to be "connected" to him. He explained that people that one of us is linked to is vetted, in a way. I scratched my head, knowing some people with hundreds of MySpace "friends",e.g., are no more connected than people one night see at a bus stop.

I've gone to parties, and because I tend to be the one who tends more to Lydia than her mother on those occasions, I'll not have a substantial conversation with anyone. I've gone to these father/child breakfast things at Lydia's day care, and except for a couple dads I'd talk with previously, I didn't really get to know any of them. We are in the same room, but there's no real connection.

So how does one get to "know" people? I'm on a couple listservs at work, and just by people asking questions and answering them, I get a feel for the way their minds work. Certainly, I've got a sense for people via their blogs, but especially when I've exchanged music with them. I was reorganizing my music over the weekend - using drawers I bought at a library auction - and the mixed CDs of Green and Dymowski and Burgas and Brown (come back, Kelly!) and Brown and Bacardi all show up in the same drawer. I've never met any of them (well, except for Green), but I feel that I know them better than people I've seen face to face recently. That's both kinda weird and kinda nice.
***
I'm enjoying listening to discs from Thom (two discs) and Tosy.
ROG

2 comments:

GayProf said...

I think that when you have been settled in a place for a long period of time it is hard to get to know new people. Everybody stays within their own lives and it gets hard to break into their bubble.

Greg said...

I feel the same way. As we've moved from Pennsylvania to Oregon and then to Arizona, I often leave friends behind. Since we've moved here, we've had the children, so I haven't made many friends because I'm home with the kids all the time. I "know" people on-line a lot better than I know people I talk to "in person," because that's where I can interact with people. When I'm out in the real world, I have to take care of business, and we don't have time to go out with friends. So I don't think it's strange to feel the way you do.