Social Networking or Social Exclusion?
I read a Fortune article this week on CNN Money - http://tinyurl.com/2t68ll - regarding a series of “social media” breakfasts organized by power-networker Jeff Pulver. According to Pulver’s blog, “the more virtual we become the more we need to have face to face meetings”. However, I had to question Pulver’s sincerity and commitment to “real-time” networking when I discovered that the sole means of registering for these breakfast events was by logging on to Facebook. As the Fortune article so aptly put it, “Anybody can sign up (though you need to be on Facebook)”. Hmmm, is it possible to experience a “meta social media experience” (Pulver’s own words) if the only means of accessing that experience is through a single, possibly stale (see recent coverage of mass abandonment of Facebook in Britain), online vehicle? I would argue that while Pulver’s goal of drawing the browsing masses away from their monitors and into the light is an admirable one, he’s shutting out a rich demographic that could bring an interesting element to his events. Witness a comment to his blog asking “…And how should we (purposely) non-Facebook users who are part of the social-geographic-web2.0 world find out and become a part of what looks like a great event??” How indeed?