Social Networks are Dates, Blogs are Long Term Relationship

Blonde 2.0 wrote an interesting post about blogs vs social networks. It derived from couple of posts by Kent and Jay re the difference between these mediums. Blonde 2.0 take on that:

“…when I write on my blog, I don’t feel like I am writing for an “audience”. I feel like I am writing for my readers. It’s a personal thing for me and I enjoy talking to and interacting my readers.”

She adds:

“I have made as many good friends from blogging … as I
have from being on the different social networks. I don’t think my
friends on the social networks know me better than those I met through
my blog”

I believe that social networks are as good as the way you use them. There are so many of them out there, and every one has its own angle. But I am just one guy, and don’t have a lot of time to spare on maintaining all those profiles (I need to work sometime…). So sometimes I am adding people to my network even if they are far from being friends.

In a sense, social networks are more like a series of dates - you don’t know a lot about the other person, but she looks interesting enough to talk with or buy her a drink. And just like dates, sometime it is a successful event and you keep in touch in other means, and sometimes it is a failure, but you still keep the number.

Blogs on the other hand provide insights to way of thought, opinions, depth, intellect and cultural world of the writer. It is like a long term relationship in the 19th century, when people wrote letters to each other for years before meeting.

In both cases I can’t say I “know” people or feel close to them only from reading their blogs or linking to them in social networks. I have these feelings towards people that I’ve met in real life, or had long discussions with them in other means such as Skype, phone or email.

Some of the problem lies in the jargon we are using (community, friends), that has stronger meaning in real life than in the online only world. If we can find new words to describe these relationships, maybe we will be able to better cope with this duality.

 

Are they blogging or social networking?

 

Technorati Tags: Web 2.0, Blog, Social Networks, Social Media, Date, Blonde 2.0, Kfir Pravda