Guilty by Association: The End of Social Networking

In the future, no one will be your friend. At least not online.

Currently we are all being asked to join, create or define online the various networks that exist in our offline lives. Some of these networks may represent a simple gathering of our current friends, co-workers, and family members as listed in our address book. Others involve the grouping of fellow competitors and compatriots in a particular game or business venture. Still other networks are built around personalities, bands, or even trends we wish to follow. And right now, we take for granted that these connections remain private (or at least semi-private), and under our control.

American citizens take great pride in our protection of privacy rights, however as netizens we also tend to feed (and feed upon) the glories of openness and sharing in common. How we balance these two extremes will become very important in the near future. Right now we have limited control on who can see the online connections we create (it's a lot less than you think), and usage agreements seem to quickly change (often without notice to the end-user) if the keeper of the data can make a quick buck. Privacy has a value to users and gatekeepers which is not always equitable.

For example, let's say you're a young teen who wants to keep up with your friends, their comings and goings, their favorite music, their thoughts and dreams. Today, you do that quite easily through myspace. It's all there to be shared and enjoyed, and heck, you can even make certain things private, or shared only among your closest friends. You can see who makes up the common network you share with the important people in your life. But as often happens in the march of time, people lose contact, paths diverge, and those who used to be our BFFs are now just names in an address book with whom we exchange the occasional e-mail. College and career are beckoning and taking us in different directions. So, you being the upstanding citizen and successful go-getter push through school and you're now ready to hit the pavement and look for a job in the real world. Now, we've all been warned to be careful what we post. There are no pictures of drunken parties on your myspace page, no nasty open letters to your ex on your blog. But lo and behold, your good buddy from high school hasn't been as mature or discreet. There before your future employer lies a map of your social network: friends, schoolmates, fellow gamers all with stories to tell, pictures to display, and extreme opinions to share. And now, they're a part of YOUR backstory. You've chosen to associate yourself with this lot. Surely these people represent the real you. Or do they? It doesn't matter. You're guilty by association.

Not to sound too pessimistic, but certainly the next Enron is a yet unknown but growing and currently successful concern. And just as certainly, executives at that company are using the power of LinkedIn to develop their business contacts. When the company implodes, how many links away will you be? Those six degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon are looking like great canyons, miles wide and deep compared to the contacts list you've created with these folks. Now you're heading for that big job interview which will allow you to move on and move up. The HR department for your future employer does its due diligence on your background. The fact that you have "friends"/associates with that guy who cheated his company, employees, investors, and the government doesn't exactly show you've got stellar business sense. It doesn't matter that you're two links away and never met the guy. Looks like you'll be spending some time with your family without that golden parachute.

None of the connections/friends/links noted above may actually or accurately represent your views, morals, values, etc. But it doesn't matter, they're YOUR friends. You're associated with them by choice. Bad company corrupts good morals, as the good book says.

So, will we overcome this new sociological dilemma? I'm sure we will, but as always these social changes take time to metastasise. Technological improvements ALWAYS have a downside that is typically unseen or underplayed with which we still must deal. We may be drawn (or sometimes forced) to take advantage of these connections just to keep up with the competition, but these connections have a cost. It remains to be seen how long it will take society to recognize that just because I have you in my Plaxo address book that doesn't mean I approve of your ideas/behavior/lifestyle/etc. So, in the future (hopefully just the near future) you may want to ditch your friends, at least online. Going it alone never looked so good. How sad.

- Hutch