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What exactly does 'social networking' mean?

Posted: August 4, 2011 - 12:06am

As a business person, I am bombarded by social-network chatter. Friends keep me updated on what they’re doing this weekend. Co-workers share relevant information in regard to my business. Family members keep me abreast of new births, illnesses, achievements, etc.

This is social in every sense of the word. But it’s more than that.

“Social” networking almost makes it sound more casual than it actually is. Social networking is about connecting. It’s about staying in touch more than used to be possible. It’s about blurring the lines between past, present and future.

Twenty-five-year high school reunions used to be a milestone. You hadn’t seen these people in years, and now you have one night to catch up. Now, we keep up with these peers day to day, regardless of geography or other limitations.

“Social network” also means the ability to “reach” almost anyone. Before the spread of social networks, gaining an audience was an exercise in legwork, homework and luck. Now, it’s really a skill you can develop.

If you want to reach a celebrity, an expert or a hard-to-reach individual, all you need is practice and patience.

Today, social networking is not relegated to one proprietary service such as Facebook. Social networking is parallel to the Internet.

People email me more shared links than they send me on Facebook. They IM me about more YouTube videos than anything else. Social networking is inseparable from the overall Internet if you’re using it to communicate and share information.

My point is that we as a species have more access to each other than ever before. No previous generation has had access to information or knowledge like we do. Communicating between states used to mean weeks of work, ponies, pigeons and any of a number of stars aligning.

Keep going back, and communicating across the world meant ships and lives and deaths and years. That was only a handful of generations ago.

Now, I can talk to my brother in Los Angeles in seconds. I can see live cameras in Paris in seconds. I can chat with people in Japan in seconds. Seconds are all it takes. And it happens so quickly that it’s easy to take for granted.

There is a fear among some that computers and the Internet are making this world less personal, that the Internet is costing jobs and humanity. I wholeheartedly disagree. Social networking, and the Internet as a whole, make human connections much more accessible.

Social networking helps long distances dissolve and relationships melt together as if the participants were in the same room. It makes the world more personal. It gives people access to one another, and it takes away excuses for falling out of touch.

As part of the last generation to grow up before our ubiquitous social networks, I believe in the cultural value of the Internet as a whole. It breaks down barriers of geography and understanding.

We as a people can’t ignore the expansion of our relationships based on the tools we have today. Embracing these tools allows us to grow as individuals and as a collective culture, and that makes it an exciting time to be alive.

Jesse Bushkar is the CEO of Sysconn New Media Inc. He can be contacted at (912) 356-9920 or jesse@sysconn.com

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