We can be guilty of adding people to our social networks whom we don't know, but is mistrust and scepticism the solution?
When is a friend a friend? When are they merely an acquaintance? A follower?
What information do you share that you wouldn't consider telling a stranger conducting a survey in your local supermarket?
The sceptics may suggest information sharing is entirely foolish.
As a society have we become too wary of openness?
Yes there is a rise in fraud and identity theft, measures to combat this are often ignored. We wouldn't post our full name, DOB, email address and phone number on a large banner hanging from our living room window, so why would we do so on our webpages? We teach our children to be internet safe for fear of who they may come into contact with yet we often fail to follow this advice personally.
Complaints about social networking also surround an inability to communicate. By only communicating via the likes of Bebo, Facebook, MSN, text messaging etc it is often said that teenagers are unable to hold a 'proper' conversation. The suggestion that many teenagers have ever wanted to hold long and meaningful conversations with adults is another issue but the descent in communication is highly debatable. Even the loneliest person can find somebody to virtually speak to; why is this considered a negative?
I'm not saying make all your profile pages public but take the opportunity to speak to people, through what ever means you can. Conversation is vital and next time you gain a new friend, follower, fan etc then say hello. If they don't reply then don't accept them, if they do who knows what you may learn? After all isn't every experience a learning one?
Perhaps 6 degrees is more than we can achieve? Milgram would be in his element.
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