Social networking and reaching the end of the internet 0
I’m kind of the grouchy old lady of the internet. I remember the internet when it was just tech geeks and sci fi guys who couldn’t get laid. Now, everyone is on the internet thanks to mass social networking sites like Myspace and LinkedIn.
I have friends and I have a professional network that I’ve maintained for 25+ years through paper and now by a digital address book. When someone told me that Myspace was no longer a recruiting tool for bands that couldn’t afford their own website database, I got on to, of course, put a dating profile up. What I got was spam from comedians and musicians asking me to see the shows. I set my six-friend profile to private. I joined LinkedIn years ago and didn’t maintain my profile because my old fashioned way was working.
This morning I received a LinkedIn friend request from my old boss in New York. After I accepted, I received a “You might also know” list of ten people. Check out how connected and random this is:
Ivan – a guy I dated
Lauren – a woman who runs a marketing network luncheon group I attended in 2003
Arthur – he dated a friend of mine
Cordes – she’s a worthless headhunter I tried using
Suzanne – she went to my grad school in VA
Terry – I met him at a technology event
Mark – my brother’s ex-roommate from 1994.
So, 70 percent of the people LinkedIn suggested I get in touch with I actually knew. That’s either one smart database, or I get around. My nine-colleague profile is expanding thanks to a DB email scrape!