The Impact of Identifying "Friends" on the AIN site?

[Yael Schy]

Hello to all of my AIN friends! I must admit that I am new to social networking, and in fact, this is my very first blog ever! :-)

When I received requests from several AIN folks to become their "friend" on this site after creating my profile, I felt honored, and I dutifully responded. I have also invited several people to become my "friends" on the site. Then I looked at all of the faces of our wonderful group, and I thought to myself, aren't we all "friends?" I began to wonder if recruiting friends on our site creates some unintended competition.

Having served for several years on the AIN conference program committee, I know that one of the issues we struggle with most is how to be inclusive. Now that we have been functioning as an organization for six years, we have some members who have come to many of our conferences and who have formed a strong bond. We also have had the good fortune to have many new faces at our conferences. So, it seems inevitable that, no matter how hard we try to include everyone in our community, some people do feel left out. I can't help but wonder if the "friends" function on our site might perpetuate those divisions.

That being said, I do know that the whole point of a social networking site is to create networks, and though my technical knowledge is limited, I am sure that there are some advantages to having a friends list, such as sending messages only to those folks that we know. Also, as our online network grows, I am sure that there will be many new faces (I hope!) and that it will become more difficult to form close bonds with everyone.

Another option we have is forming interest groups, such as regional groups or those who are interested in a particular applied improv topic.

I would be very interested in hearing people's point of view on using the "friends" option. Please tell me your thoughts!

Happy Thanksgiving to the Americans!

Take care,

Yael Schy

[Sven Veine]

I agree Yael, we are all friends and I think we sometimes also have to connect to the "feel left out" part of ourselves to be really inclusive.

[Jerry Kail]

I share your concerns, Yael. By way of analogy, on Linkedin, I believe that you can't just search/browse for a name and then see everyone in that person's network - they need to invite you into their network before you can see their other network members. Here [please don't descend on me, technophiles, if I'm showing my ignorance], you can see anyone else's friends list - kind of like a virtual high school hallway, where you can check out who's hanging around with whom in front of their lockers.

(And Happy Thanksgiving from the chilly US Midwest!)

Jerry

[Robin McCulloch]

This is something that a couple of people have posted on here as well. And I suspect that those of us who are new to social networking sites find it more challenging that those with experience.

I know it stopped me in my tracks a little while I got analytical for a few moments. What should it mean that I ask someone I don't really know to be my friend. Is it presumptuous? Should it or does it hold any real meaning? Should it be treated lightly or taken seriously?

You can see I need to get out more. So here is where I landed. As I saw something that someone posted or something on their page that intrigued me I would ask them to be a friend. And what I decided that meant was, let's look forward to becoming friends.

It is more intuitive and less about judgement. And also is about a hopeful future.

I think it could be that I just don't get, yet, the virtual reality and I'm using old rules for a new game. On the other hand there are some things about the old game and it's rules that I don't want to lose. So I'm just seeing what happens and expecting good things because it seems to be a community of bright, honourable and well intentioned indiviuals all of whom are potential friends.