[ This post also had working titles of Friends, bloggers and
countrymen and anti-social networking. ]
A few weeks ago, a gentleman called
WaveyDavey001 was kind enough to
invite me to participate in a Fantasy Football League.
Rather rudely, I attempted to invite several of my friends into the same
League so I only needed to manage one team. WaveyDavey001 politely
agreed with the caveat; 'I'd like to vaguely know most (of them)'.
This innocuous, throwaway comment started me thinking about the nature
of relationships on all these social networks.
WaveyDavey001 only 'knows' me from Jaiku. He knows I support Manchester
United and knows I like football. Therefore, just like any clever
marketeer, he knew it was possible I might be interested in a Fantasy
League.
The only biographical details I have published on Jaiku are that I am
from 'London, near England'. I also publish an avatar on all social
networks but this is merely a picture of Alan Partridge dressed up as a
drug crazed zombie, caked in flour. This often leads to disappointment
when people meet me in the flesh.
If you followed my various online presences for a period of time and/or
trawled through the archives, you could probably gather lots more
information about me (where I live, who I work for, my age, my marital
status, my full name) but that would just make you a stalker and I could
get a restraining order.
Now Michael C Harris
maintains that every single utterance on Jaiku, Twitter, identi.ca,
FriendFeed (et al) is divulging information about me - my interests
(football, music, tennis, software, blogging etc), my attitude, my sense
of, err, humour, and, of course, he's absolutely right. Michael sums it
up succinctly in this related
post:
'The body of tweets is indicative.'
I have encountered various, interesting, humourous, friendly, helpful
people since I started blogging three years ago and yet I still really
struggle with what to call these people - friends, mates or blogging
acquaintances.
A long time ago, one of my earliest and longest standing blogging
acquaintances, engtech, made a comment
on a blog where he referred to me as a 'friend' and I was genuinely
quite taken aback.
I have never met most of my 'blogging acquaintances' in person. I
haven't spoken with most of my 'blogging acquaintances'. I don't know
what most of my 'blogging acquaintances' actually look like.
To me, a friend is someone you have met in person and shared a pint
with. A friend is someone you could rely on.
I suspect the social networking equivalent of 'sharing a pint' would
probably be Instant Messaging. Most of my relationships start with
comments on blogs and may subsequently develop into email contact and
occasionally conversations on IM.
And the point of all this ? Well - I'm not too sure but this post has
been gathering dust in the dark recesses of my mind and hogging an entry
in 'Drafts' for far too long. Plus the Partridge-esque title was simply
too good to resist.
What do you call your blogging acquaintances ? Is my attitude to
'friends' simply typical British self-reserve ? Or am I a tortured soul
prone to over analysis and introspection ?
