Looking at the journey that is my past, I have met countless people, some who I have grown to become good friends with, and others that I have never seen since, and probably never see again. I started using social networks around middle school, at the time though It was only to ‘also’ have a myspace, and then facebook account.
I first started really appreciated social networks when I moved from Cameroon in 9th grade, and it allowed me to stay in touch, not only by occasional phone calls, or mails, but by having a rugged outline of their current past, complete with pictures, videos, and personal statements.
Even though I now not only appreciate social networks, but also am intrigued by the possibilities they create, I do not spend my days in front of various types of social networks. I try to draw a line between the purposeful connection that I can create with friends that I do not encounter every day, and the chit-chat or gossip of bored internet addicts. In this way I do not waste days on Facebook, but access it for the time it requires to catch-up.
If I look at it from a third perspective, I pull information, rather than push it outwards. I understand the benefits of pushing information for business or events that need to communicate updates often, to different social groups, and stakeholders. At this time however, I personally don’t need to advertise my private life over the web, simply since there are no apparent benefits to doing so.
I have just recently begun to use Google+ with some of my friends, and was amazed at the amount of possibilities offered in which you can interact with someone. The hangout feature brings about the possibility to ‘chill’ with a friend over the internet, almost as if he were sitting in the same room. I think social networks create a huge pocket of new possibilities in ways to connect with people for the future. To find these now hidden connections, we should look for the issue’s present in our world, and with innovation try to combine the various uses of networks in order to find a solution.
Having travelled a lot, I know that the best places are not in your tourist guide, or the lonely planet, but hidden in deeper places, known and sometimes protected by locals. It is easy to get sick of going to overrun beaches, or tourist traps, but at the same time it isn’t easy to find the better places all on your own. A social network that could connect the user and his requirements with specific destinations, identified by other users at previous stages, could allow travellers to find destinations matched to their expectations and needs for that journey. In theory this could allow for a reduction in destructive Mass tourism, allowing for new, realer types of ‘tourism’ to emerge, such as eco-toursim. On the other hand thats theory, and the implementation of such a network could take years, without including the time it would take for it to have a sizeable effect on society.