Everyone around you is just a potential ‘follower’, so accept all your friend requests*
TLDR:
‘Social’ networks are now misnomers. They’re no longer really platforms for socializing or relationships. They’re content distribution platforms.
Curating them closely to match real life relationships is an epic waste of time.
Friend or Connections are literally just ‘subscribers’ or ‘followers’.
DEETs:
Sometimes I’m a bit slow in recognizing the implications of things even when I’ve thought and written about them. I wrote http://ojiudezue.com/blog/index.php/p15/ as part of a strategy class for the Berkeley-Columbia EMBA. While researching it, I uncovered what I think is the true nature of Facebook, re: a communications network and a content distribution company. The communications network piece was well known at the time of my writing, although in 2010, there was still a big distinction between the concept of social networks and mature communications networks like mobile operators and messenger apps (yahoo, msn, etc). As we see in 2019, those distinctions are almost gone. Facebook and Facebook Messenger are the largest communications network in the world. And the runner up is Whatsapp, which is owned by the same company. Among other things, you can chat AND do voice calls over them, bypassing many old guard communications networks and protocols. The fact that Facebook is also a content distribution company was just emerging as well and is actually still emerging today.
I’m slow because I didn’t understand the true consequences of being a content distribution platform, especially its effect on individuals participating on the content creation side. I had only considered traditional companies as content producers. In retrospect, I had this blind spot because I was susceptible to the anchoring terms Facebook and its ilk, use to describe the services they provide. Social networks started out as ‘friend networks’ and as such, used metaphors that match: friends, connections, lists. These are anchored terms that herd you into a specific frame of reference when using the service. For example on Facebook, people tended to curate their friend requests to make them hyper relevant…to be their actual friends. A lot of people in my generation worked to eliminate ‘acquaintance spam’ on Facebook, we really wanted the friend list to be super relevant — I remember one time, I smugly created a list named ‘real friends’ and another named ‘barely know em’. Same thing on more professional networks like LinkedIn; one of my bosses once told me that he only accepted LinkedIn requests from people he could recommend. This was wisdom passed down by none other than Reid Hoffman, one of the main founders of LinkedIn.
In reality though, these are now the wrong metaphors for ‘social networks’ platforms. This was inevitable once these platforms consistently exceeded multiples of the dunbar number (which some people believe roughly governs the number of people individuals can legitimately construct a social relationship around). They became inadequate as a way to understand your social circles and more naturally became impersonal and inconsequential as intimate social tools. They are more properly understood as a content broadcast and interaction platforms. And the amazing thing about them particularly, is that they have an unprecedented resolution of one person, as a trusted ‘broadcaster’. Granted, the first movers on the platform tended to be companies — the ‘company page’ product from Facebook is a good early example. But individual users had long started to use social networks to accrue influence. However, the special innovation of social networks as content distribution platforms is that for the first time in history, a medium gave a single individual about the same chance at being truly influential, as the largest company, which was not previously a typical possibility. Every previous iteration of content distribution has needed (for a variety of reasons) some kind of ‘organization’ to do quality work: radio, television, movies; even quality podcasts are not easy to make without an ensemble creation team. Social networks lower the friction to mass distribution tremendously, and coupled with powerful portable computers (smart phones) to create quality content, you now have a content creation revolution for individuals.
So, the right metaphor is ‘subscribers’. On social networks, you’re really not making friends or professional connections (even if you think you are). You’re acquiring subscribers to your content; your updates and your ideas. This is to say that Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn have the right anchored terms — you’re acquiring ‘followers’. This is an even more apt term given that mobile notifications technology ensures that your followers are almost forcibly kept abreast of your views and content unless they affirmatively opt out….which we now know they likely won’t do because of the fear of missing out (FOMO). And the fact that humans overestimate their ability to block out notifications they don’t find ‘relevant’ (we’re all monkeys in the hands of the attention merchants).
Like I said, I’m slow — kids and millennials have always instinctively known what I’ve written above, but I want to give it precise words and maybe help others see what even an older social network, like Facebook, really is: an efficient way to broadcast to a lot of people any content you want, the easiest to procure being whatever you want to write or share. And also a way to get real-time feedback on whether that content passes the muster of the crowd, through ‘like’ buttons and their ilk. In a way this is the perfect political messaging system — a way to massively influence potentially millions of people, while also getting the instant feedback you need to fine tune your influence peddling. And once you have a following, raising money can be piddlingly trivial if you have the right message. Nation states are right to be worried.
In an increasingly digital world, gaining influence and reputation can be as valuable as actual wealth. Its a competitive game that almost no-one of working age can really afford to sit out in a world of scarce resources. So stop gating your friend requests and your LinkedIn connections. Embrace your ‘followers’ in all forms and wherever they exist. The future of these tools is influence peddling and reputation formation, not ‘social network’ curation. For that, you need all the ‘friends’ and ‘connections’ you can get.
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*Sure block the spam accounts. But only them.