- Given the vast number of possible clusters one can associate with, it becomes possible, ultimately, to find a comfortable niche with people just like oneself, among other individuals whose views merely reinforce one’s own.
- It is entirely possible to fabricate the outside world, reducing it to a projection of oneself. Rather than fostering deliberation, blogs can simply reinforce opinions between like-minded individuals. Lacking common platform for deliberation, they reinforce existing differences.
- Moreover, new divisions occur: Humans are able to maintain only a finite number of relationships and as we connect with others at a distance who are more like us, we are likely to disconnect with others in our community who are less like us –
- This was also exposed in an Economist.com article written in December last year:
- “Unlike other networks, social network lose value once they go beyond a certain size. Despite their name, therefore, they do not benefit from the network effect (that the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of its users). Already, social networks such as ‘asmallworld.net’, an exclusive network site for the rich and famous, are proliferating.
ASmallWorld.com
- This suggests that the future of social networking will not be one big social graph but instead myriad small communities on the internet to replicate the millions that exist offline.”
NING.com - create your own networks
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