A Social Experiment

I made my first foray into the world of social networking software (Friendster, Tribe, Orkut and the like) this week and I was left a bit underwhelmed. I will admit that the concept is exciting and has potential but I'm not sure what it can potentially do. For instance, there are people that I know through weblogs or the Internet that I find very interesting and it would be interested in knowing something about their friends as well, but after I've read their profiles, then what? Should I send a bunch of messages saying "Hey, you know [person] and so do I, I also like [activity], will you accept my invitation and be my official 'friend' in this community?" I'm not trying to be cynical, I just want to understand.

Maybe it's the whole "friend" concept that adds to the awkwardness of the situation. With weblogs everyone is free to link to whoever they like with no implicit obligation. I link to people and things that I find interesting but the fact that I do so does not demand anything of the object of my link. But with social networking software (or at least the version I'm familiar with), people request and make connections that each side much accept. Someone says to me "Hey, I want to be your friend" and if I'm not a good sport/social butterfly and I decide to decline the offer, I think that clearly sends a negative message to the asker, who I never wanted to offend. But I don't want to just add people willy-nilly (how can you have 300 "friends"?!) because in doing so I am vouching for that person and I have to know more about a person than the fact that they are my friend's acquaintance to do so. I'm not concerned with protecting my own image, I just don't want to betray the trust of my friends by endorsing someone without knowing them. I guess I'm probably taking this all a little too seriously.

The last thing that my recent social adventure taught me is that you need to be aware of the information that you're presenting about yourself in a situation like this. This didn't occur to me until I located some people that I can barely count as acquaintances and found out way more than I wanted to know about them, which made me a bit uncomfortable. The problem is compounded by the fact that many of these sites try to encompass all types of relationships: friends, potential business partners, love interests, etc. Imagine if you showed up to a job interview and before anything else was said, you announced your name, marital status, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, political affiliation, drinking habits, passions, etc. No matter how good of a fit your data set may be with the other person's, it's strange to learn everything this way.

Maybe I'm just a bad candidate for this type of thing. Now Dogster, that's a concept I can get behind.