Pilgrim Notes

Reflections along the way.

Category: social networking (page 5 of 5)

Family Communities

Whereas MySpace focuses on the youth culture, now there multiple layers of social networking sites focusing on various niches. E-fluentials pointed me to a group of sites now emerging directed at connecting families and giving families a place to tell their story (OurStory, Families, Jotspot). I think this could take off. My dad wanted to write a memoir and then said he rather create an interactive website about his life. Something like these could facilitate that.

Get on the Island

Several trends have converged in the new Tribewanted timeshare. Appealing to the strong drive for social connecting this timeshare is about joining a tribe, a community. At the same time, this offers an eco-friendly vacation, and there’s opportunity for public service. Looks interesting, similar in some ways to the popularity of mission trips for adults. In many churches adults forgo the yearly vacation to go to some remote region and help build a school, houses, and/or set up medical clinics. (Some adult missions include The Bridge,  Experience Mission, Missions to Mexico)
If you want to join the tribe, you better sign up! Only 5,000 slots. Thanks to Iconoculture for the Tribewanted tip.

Iranian Bloggers

Lisa Goldman continues to provide interesting comments, links and information on the Middle East conflict. She also provides content for Global Voices Online. This is a great clearing for what bloggers are saying about various issues around the world. I ran across this interesting piece on Iranian bloggers commenting the current Israel-Lebanon war.

Dandelife

Dandlife is an interesting variation on the social networking. You tell stories and build a web stories that can interconnect with other story webs. Plus, companies can purchase these stories for brand research, case studies, etc. Marshall Kirkpatrick at Tech Crunch is uncomfortable with this idea. I’m not sure what to think. But the site is interesting.
Every day another social networking development. Seems folks are scrambling to jump in this phenomenon while it’s hot. It will be interesting to see what happens in a year or two with this stuff. After the explosion of various networks I wonder if some will fade or if there will be some connections between networks or if another form of tribalism will emerge with networks becoming more and more niche specific.

Nylon Magazine

Nylon magazine recently started a MySpace page. Now you can here interviews from the mag on the MySpace page. This is a fascinating blend of social networking and new media. Thanks to PSFK for the tip.

Shop Wiki

The wiki engine is now serving a shopping portal. This has potential to takes sites like shopping.com and shopzilla.com to a new level. Shop Wiki searches 120,000+ stores, allows customer reviews, customer shopping tip articles, customer video reviews. And in true wiki format, the content is out there for review and update by the community (though not the videos). Pretty cool.

Is Virtual Community Community?

Online communities are exploding across the web offering new opportunities to join social networks each day. This catches my attention with my longing and study of community over the last 20 years. I see it as part of a larger trends that has been in motion for over 100 years. The ideas that gave rise to the Enlightenment challenged the collectivists oppression of Europe and sought to make room for the value of the Individiual.

These ideas played a fundamental role in the shaping of America. When Alexis De Tocqueville visited America in the early nineteenth century, he was fascinated by our individualism and highly valued it. Yet, he warned of the dangers of unrestrained individualism that would destroy the common good. He suggested that America has certain restraining forces that held individualism in check: civic commitment, family, and communities of faith.

The power of these forces have eroded giving rise to a culture of individual right and lacking individual responsibility. The side effect is individuals feeling cut off from the whole resulting in alienation, loneliness, meaninglessness and desire for a connection to something greater then themselves. Kierkegaard noted this development in mid nineteenth century and many existintialists and postmoderns have built upon in the 20th century.

The current explosion of online communities is but another manifestation of humans trying to find a way to connect–just as we saw in the the communes of the 60s. Local manifestations include the rise of knitting circles, quilting and other clubs, smoking rooms, reading circles and even a small group movement in the church. I see online communties developing and reshaping for years to come, but our sense of individualism is so strong that I do not think they or many other attempts at building social networks successfully connecting people in authentic lifelong relationships.

There may be a few deep relationships of lifelong reciprical love emerging from these trends but there will also continue to be many lonely, disatisfied people. Just today Washington Post ran an article about the growing sense of isolation among American in spite of the explosion of social networks.

I think businesses, civic leaders and churches would be wise to study this trend and think deeply about what responsibility they may have in helping encourage the formation of community in the workplace, online, the local community and the houses of worship.

I see this struggle between individulism and community as a renewed struggle between the ancient philosophical problem of the one and the many. I will write more later about how I see the Trinity as a genuine response to this dilemna.

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