The Value of Online Relationships

Umair Haque writes an article called The Social Media Bubble where he discusses how facebook and twitter produce artificial, weak connections he coins as thin relationships. The article currently has 214 comments which give some pretty interesting perspectives on how social media is meaningful. Here are a few excerpts from comments that had compelling arguments. For those who still aren't convinced read this article about re-uniting a band for charity.

"There are those of us out there though, who are trying to make it abundantly and transparently clear that a trust network can very well be established right in plain sight, and build on a universal value system of trust, mutual respect, cooperation, and collaboration. I've been working for months to reveal the value and power of building a trust network around yourself, and I've just framed it out."

"the internet has provided the tools to build more trust and more shared experiences in life across geographic boundaries - and that is of enormous worth. The question is whether people use these tools to further relationships - or just grasp for attention from the masses."

"Social media has enabled a great potential to initiate relationships, "it's all about who you know" And that is 100% true. Since I've proactively developed relationships online (NB-mostly with local people) I have created much more opportunities for myself and met more people that I may not have had direct access to before."

"You say "Real relationships are patterns of mutual investment. I invest in you, you invest in me." That's exactly what we do on Twitter and Facebook, we share good information not to promote (maybe a little) but to help others find that information easier while in return they send you good signal to save time. We also discuss in great detail with those "friends" our thoughts, beliefs and opposing views on various subjects. For some of us, this *is* a huge "investment of time, money, knowledge, and attention" that we do unselfishly. This is just as much of a real relationship as one may have with a co-worker or classmate. Some will fade away when they are no longer in the location (or site) but other friendships could stand the test of time."

"Most relationships in social media do not hold constant value. They are not like dollars that can be exchanged at any given point for a (relatively) fixed amount. They hold "potential value" instead of "relative value". For example, you might never realize any value in a certain connection, but then one day when you need someone as a source for x story with which that connection is knowledgeable, or an interview with y company where that connection works, that connection now has an extremely high value. It's the potential that drives these kind of relationships in social media."

My perspective is that social media isn't a fad or a bubble, it's simply in a nascent stage because ultimately it:

1. builds and reinforces our offline connections with people. It lets us continue our conversations, share our discussions and get input from other people in our network.

2. allows us to share things that are interesting and important to us and receive information from others in return.

3. let's us reach out and learn from individuals who previously would have been out of our reach.