Over the past couple weeks I’ve been trying out a new geo-social networking tool called BrightKite. They call themselves a “location based social network” which basically means that they encourage users to check-in (using the web or SMS) to various physical locations, and to then broadcast that location to other users. One of my friends on Twitter (a very interesting micro-blogging community) asked why anyone would care where someone else is, and what the point of these kind of networks are. A good question, but one that is definitely uninformed about the larger purpose of geo-social networking.
Being able to alert people to your location really isn’t all that useful, unless you are nearby to another person, and a social interaction becomes possible. The real purpose of these networks is to actually enable real-world connections by digitally mapping a person’s whereabouts and comparing them to others. Instead of having to call people to tell them where you are (how antiquated!), you instead just have your geo-spatial location tracked, and have your friends become alerted to this location in real-time. In essence, these services will allow us to unify our virtual and meatspace connections, thereby enhancing both!1
Differentiate…
But why hasn’t this already happened? Most of the social networks you belong to today happen exclusively online. Facebook, Myspace, etc. allow you to connect with people you don’t know, who may share interests with you or even a common background, but they certainly don’t promote—except in rare instances—actual physical connections. 2 This has created, what many critics have pointed out as, a disconnected relationship to the physical world, not an enhanced one. But that is really only half the story, the 1st half of differentiation.
Just as a new cell must differentiate itself from an old one while replicating, so too has the internet differentiated itself from normal ways of worldly communication. And just as computers are vastly superior to the human brain at certain types of computation, and are becoming more so each day with the continued development of artificial intelligence, the internet allows world-wide collective communication at far greater speeds and with far greater collaborative potential. What is web 2.0 if not a greater tapping of the internet’s global communication potential?
…then Integrate
The 2nd half of the story is one of integration, of coming together, of unifying at higher and more complex levels. We are seeing the beginnings of internet technologies that are beginning to reach back into our physical lives, to bring the stupendous benefits of lightening-quick, highly collaborative, data-rich systems back into social lives.
The result, eventually, will be geo-social networks that track where we are (instead of us having to do so manually) will notify us not only of pre-existing friends that are close, but also of people we might like to meet based on a set of shared interests, friendships, and passions. We’ll begin to be able to meet people that we didn’t even know we wanted to meet. That’s human relationships 2.0—to extend the 2.0 metaphor farther then I probably should.
All new technologies begin as crude and slightly disconnected from the rest of their environments. We can think back only a couple of decades to massive mainframe computers and big brick-like cellphones that almost no one used. The internet, and the social networks that we find on it today are kind of like that. But with geo-social networking on the rise, and a host of other useful, more fully integrated information technologies, we are going to find out lives more deeply enriched by these things, not less so. In the end their integration will become so tight, as it already has become for many in my generation, that we really won’t be able to distinguish any difference between the virtual world and the real world. It will just be the world that we interact, love, work, and play in.
- You can of course choose to not have your location broadcast. When the technology becomes more mature the only choice you’ll likely be making is whether to be “on the radar” or “off the grid”. Most everything else will be handled automatically for you. [↩]
- Online dating services like Match.com are definitely an exception. Just wait until they start harnessing geo-social networking technologies! You’ll be standing at the corner of Pearl and 14th and will suddenly be receiving a date request over your cell phone from the woman across the street—and neither of you may have initiated the date! Blind dating on steroids. [↩]
May 13th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Good use of “differentiate, then integrate.” I’m definitely curious about the possibilities!
May 13th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
I agree on the eventual outcome, but not on the getting there. I think of the hell MySpace and Facebook can be right now, two not-quite-mature technologies that are points of obsession for the wrong reasons. They will settle down eventually into something useful and in the background versus distracting and requiring too much active attention, but right now they’re a mess. At least I can walk away from them, though, in their current incarnations, and still have an online presence and interact with people. With Geo-Social networking? Not quite.
Have you read Cory Doctorow’s “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom”? He posits a world where such a social networking is in effect, and the positive and negative aspects of it. I’d be curious what you think. If you haven’t read it (it’s short, about 80 pages), you can download it for free at http://craphound.com/down/download.php .
May 13th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Steven,
Thanks for the comment and for the suggested book. It looks really interesting.
In response to your comment, which I heard as a somewhat cynical response to current and future social networking, I just wanted to emphasize how difficult the process of differentiation is. I didn’t really mention this in my post, but if one thinks about the Enlightenment period as a differentiation from the mythic dogma of the times, that was a seriously difficult period of time. Even now we haven’t seen a true integration in larger culture from that period of history.
The point being, differentiation is a bitch, is hard, is the emergence of something new but not quite distinct, and the death to what’s old and very much still in control. With regard to internet technologies, the amount of needless attention that is wasted, the amount of information overload that occurs, and the like, is not without it’s difficulty. That being said, I’m a technooptimist and really a human optimist. I think we will eventually be able to harness these technologies for good, bring them into our lives in a more harmonic way (until the next big leap hits us), and use them as a evolutionary catalysts. I know many people may not agree with this, but it seems that in times of such extreme chaos and complexity it’s pretty much impossible not to take a more optimistic approach. Anything else is just unbearable.
May 13th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
regarding the dating on steroids, can’t remember where I read about it but an online dating service was beta testing something like this in london a year or two ago…..if someone that was a profile match came within 5 miles you each got an anonymous text message with info about the person….
additionally, casey and i have a fantastic real world idea for the application of social networking to meat space. just needs a shitload of startup money! mwaaaah!
May 14th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Yo Jason,
Well maybe a super-wealthy VC will pop in, read this post, and send you a few Mil. It’s probably happened before.
May 14th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Hello, Vincent.
You’re right, it was a little cynical sounding, but my intention was to come across as realistic. An optimistic view of the future doesn’t negate the difficulties that have to happen to arrive in that optimistic future. I’d even suggest that an optimistic view could blind someone to the situation happening now, and derail the better future.
My concern is that I feel there needs to be a balance until things sort out, and in this case there needs to be a place where technology and social networking don’t reach. Wether it’s for the curmudgeonly few who don’t like nasty tech, or for the rebels, or for the free thinkers who can provide an intellectual and philosophical counterbalance to the overall movement of society, the balance tends to come from people who can see the whole plan and provide insight as to what the general direction is, what we have lost along the way, how the human condition is changing. Take Thoreau as an example. My concern is that such space is becoming increasingly rare. Even taking into account that such a thinker must be connected and experienced with the current situation to render a valid critique, that person still needs space. Where is the modern day Walden Pond in the social media context?
May 14th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
Hi Steven,
Love your points and agree with all of them. Not as distinct and different as my own but as complimentary emphases.
As far as answering your question, “Where is the modern day Walden Pond in the social media context?” I have a couple of answers to that.
One is in somebodies individual effort, of people who choose to “go dark” for periods of time and who benefit from it. Personally, I spend at least a month each year doing meditation intensives where there is absolutely no access to technology–no phones, no e-mail, in fact no talking to other people whatsoever. It’s just like Walden Pond.
I find that extremely valuable.
The other way has to do with these services actually providing ways of setting parameters. Even with BrightKite you can decide to not be on the radar, to not have an account, to choose which services to use and how much to use them. Any good service will allow you the ability to customize how much you want to be involved.
The problem though, like you mention, is that there are larger cultural and technological contexts happening in the background which we have very little influence over. In this day and age you need to adopt certain technologies to be “successful” at certain things. That’s just a fact, and sometimes a difficult one. The way I’ve dealt with this fact, besides maintaining a generally optimistic tone, is to see things in terms of an evolutionary context. I hinted to this at my post with differentiation and integration, or as Hegel put it thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. Seeing that great difficulty often proceeds evolutionary leaps is one way of not seeing the social milieu we’re currently dealing with as regressive or dangerous. And I think it’s a more accurate view.
Thanks again for your well-considered thoughts.
May 14th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
I’ve also had this observation - I wouldn’t be surprised, especially, if this application first shows up on the I-Phone. One of the first things I saw happening, when the SDK was announced by Jobs.
May 14th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Yeah, I bet SF will be the first place that a full-blown geo-social network sprouts. The geek density there is outrageous!
May 14th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Vincent:
Thank you for your well-considered thoughts too! I always enjoy your blog.
I’ve yet to go on an immersive retreat, but it is one of my resolutions this year. I hope to do it this fall. And you’re right, it would be an effective Walden Pond. But we two can afford to do that. My brother cannot, and he is someone who could definitely use it. I find it’s very helpful to keep in mind what other people have access too, in terms of checking against my own flights of fancy and to help ground me.
I think your thoughts about learning to use new technology effectively is key here. It is what can keep us from tumbling headlong into the new age, out of control, just as learning to control and use our minds correctly can help us deal with our lives. I have experiential data to back this up, in my job in web development for a university. The professors who step up and learn the new tech, no matter how successful they are, deal with it better than the ones who get pulled along or who resist. Even the adopters describe feeling overwhelmed, though. I keep hearing that it would be nice to have a year off from any upgrades and new technologies.
PS - It’s been 3 years since I’ve studied Hegel, and it still gives me a headache.
I’m more of a Spinozan anyways! Which didn’t win me many friends in the department.