An integral part of our society is the connections we make with other members. In addition to the plethora of personal and familial connections, we also have any combination of social, business, religious or other types of connections.
What defines a connection, and how they relate to us is in the commonality between the two of us. On LinkedIn, for the most part, what I have in common with the vast majority of my connections is the companies I’ve worked for or followed, or those that I’ve work with/for or within the same industry as me.
To an extent, I imagine my world and my connections being like a great big Venn diagram. Those people that I have the deeper bond with are usually those where we have more common intersections between our respective circles.
I’m not a big ‘player’ when it comes to social media. I tweet a bit and I’ll make occasional posts on LinkedIn, but I’m certainly not a social media maven by any stretch of the imagination. That having been said, it seems to me that as a very rampant and unfair generalization, social media tends to encourage the proliferation of networks. In of itself, there’s nothing wrong with that and in many aspects the breadth of social media is wonderful, it allows us to not only grow our networks but also to experience other cultures and viewpoints that perhaps aren’t so easily accessible as a result of geographic limitations. With social media, I am able to learn about other cultures and views and to get distinctly non-North American perspectives on issues.
To me though, these networks are not always true ‘communities’. My distinction is that a network has breadth, but not depth. I may be connected to many individuals but the vast majority of these contacts, I do not personally know well, nor am I as emotionally invested in their lives or the well-being. A community on the other hand is something completely different. The lack of breadth is compensated by the depth of the relationship. I think of my ‘community’ as being those individuals that I confide in and that I love and support – and know that the same is offered to me.
The purpose of this article isn’t to say that communities are better than networks; they both have their places in a person’s life. My concern is, I think that some people spend more time nurturing their network of friends and acquaintances as opposed to building the true relationships in their lives – to me that is a very sad and concerning thing.
I feel that for our society to grow and evolve, it requires the cooperation and the synergy of like-minded individuals who not only have a passion for their goals and directions, but also towards the other individuals in their collective. This is how we unite and this is how the sum of the whole is greater than the parts.
By: Rick McCallion
Rick is a seasoned software developer with over 25 years of experience in designing and developing systems. In addition to the software development experience, he is also experienced in training users with various skill sets and assisting organizations in determining their information technology needs.
Rick has taught numerous courses at Front Runner for mature audiences with limited computer experience. He teaches with patience and simplicity, in order for everyone to follow and feel comfortable with the software to use on their own.
Rick welcomes any comments, suggestions or questions. This article, along with many others, can be found on his blog at http://techumanity.blogspot.com