Via Digg, I ran across this infographic the other day and found it quite insightful. It details a hierarchy of intimacy in communication from one-on-one conversation (the most intimate) to posting on Twitter (the least intimate). Here’s the original graphic at the website of the designer who came up with it, Ji Lee, so you can see it in a larger format. Clearly, it’s not an exhaustive assessment of the different forms of communication, but I think it’s very helpful in understanding the difference between the several emerging types of interpersonal communication like Facebook and Twitter, particularly in light of the difficulties people experience trying to translate the variables of privacy, intimacy, and emotionality in online communication.
I’m a little surprised that blogging isn’t on the list; I would put blogging somewhere in between #3 and #2, because personal blogs tend to have elements of broadcasting and elements of group discussion. I wonder if Lee felt that the well-noted trend of personal bloggers abandoning their websites in favor of social networking sites means that blogs have lost their place in the parade of online communication. I’d argue that they haven’t, except that I think that personal blogging is indeed on the wane.
Within the spectrum of Lee’s diagram, it is possible to look even more closely at the nature of relationships as they develop through these media forms. I also recently came across this blog entry from media strategist Mike Arauz which looks at the varying levels of online friendship in a similar scale of increasing intimacy.
Click here for full-size image
This spectrum looks at a number of different elements to online relationships other than mode of communication to develop a richer profile of the layers involved. I think it is quite comprehensive, and it was easy for me to map out practically every relationship I have with someone I know online, from passing acquaintances to lifelong friends. Interestingly, in the follow-up post Arauz wrote in response to the initial reaction to his ideas, one commenter asserted that most online relationships are extensions of offline relationships, but I think this is incorrect. It’s probably true that most online relationships that involve the social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn *DO* stem from offline relationships (indeed, they are predicated on the notion that you are making an online connection to someone you already know), online relationships that were born at different points in time on the Internet through blogs, mailing lists, and web forums began and continue to exist almost entirely as online relationships. I would argue that social networks tend to defeat one of the things that made the first decade of the Internet so interesting, namely the opportunity to meet people online that you would have never met in the offline world due to distance. While there is some cross-pollination of relationships through Facebook, et.al., social networking tends to reinforce existing relationships rather than encourage new ones.
I love you, man, and your wins are my wins. I just wish at least one of us was, you know, *having* some actual wins lately, but I continue to hope.
The fact that “G-Force” did not completely suck is a big win in my book.
Heh. Good point. *fist bump*
I sure hope the FB folks don’t see this…they hate it when someone doesn’t love ‘em…especially my friend in real life Barb who is really chewing me out for calling the place shallow.
I tend to disagree, actually. The vast majority of my Facebook friends are people I would never have met except for the Internet. The people I’ve got as Facebook friends whom I knew in high school I never would have caught up with again if it weren’t for the Internet. Also, thirty out of my 103 Facebook friends are people I’ve never met in real life.
Granted, I’m an Internet geek. I got on Usenet in early 1992 and have maintained an online presence ever since. One thing I think is neat about Facebook is how many mundanes it’s sucked in.
But the question is: is your experience more or less typical of the average Facebook user. I would argue that because you are a person who has incorporated online experiences into your daily life, your situation is less typical of the average, but probably pretty typical among those of us who have been participating in online forums since The Good Old Days. I am often taken aback (though I suppose I should not be) at how many people I know who spend little-to-no time online, and for whom Facebook is a very new experience. Without any solid data, though, both you and I are merely conjecturing.
Probably not. There aren’t actually that many of us internet geeks, it just feels like it when you’ve been online awhile. Of course, that’s where my anthropology degree comes in useful, studying this strange other culture.