Slashdot recently posted this article about a study that’s determined the internet is to blame for people’s dwindling social networks.

“This change indicates something that’s not good for our society. Ties with a close network of people create a safety net. These ties also lead to civic engagement and local political action”

It reminds me of Mesh and how excited people were about the whole social networking movement often associated with web 2.0. I often look at movements such as technology based social networking as symptoms. Held in that light I think it starts to get sad. It points to masses of people using technology who are desperate for social interaction. The sad part is watching them try to achieve that over the internet.

One of the presenters at Mesh was the guy who created Favourville. It’s a great example of what technologists hold up as examples of a web 2.0 social application. It allows people to connect with each other and exchange favours. You need to borrow a tall ladder, have a pile of rocks to get rid of, etc.

Great, someone using internet technology to connect people and build social networks? No, my first instinct was that this is yet another way for people not to know their neighbours. The only reason applications like favourville exist is due to a failed experiment called the suburbs combined with a technology called the internet. It isn’t opening up new possibilities, it’s attempting to fix what we’ve broken.

5 Loop

10 Go next door

20 Introduce yourself

30 Ask your neighbour if they have a ladder you can borrow.

40 Repeat until ladder borrowed

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 27th, 2006 at 12:33 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.