The Idea Blog

I came across this from David Kirkpatrick in his “Fast Forward” column (on cnnmoney.com). It’s one of the best rationales for why social networking is not only so popular but also so valuable to those doing it:

“The reason social networking matters is simple: people do things together, and this new software [Facebook, MySpace, et al.] promises us the means to engage the social aspect of our lives in everything we do online. Among other things, shopping, consuming media, researching, planning our time, and of course communicating can all be done more efficiently if we have manageable information about what our friends are doing. It goes way beyond high school and college kids sharing photos and exchanging gossip. ”

Here’s my earlier post on networking sites.