Joho the Blog
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February 02, 2004
Orkut embodies two of the weaknesses inherent in artificial social networks: it requires us to be clear and precise. Those are virtues when it comes to invoices and jury verdicts, but they are how real social networks are not built. The precision shows up in the digital choices we're given: Is Phil your friend or not? If he is, is he one-star, two-star or three-star sexy? Choices you are not given include: (i) Sort of sexy. (ii) Could be sexy if he dressed better. (iii) If I were a woman, I think I'd find him sort of sexy if I went for that type and if he dressed better. So, exactly how many stars does that work out to? Ah, but as several commenters on a previous blog entry pointed out, Orkut lets us write testimonials precisely to get around the over-precision of the yes-no rating system: We can write what we want and say what we can't say with 1-3 stars. But, while testimonials need not be precise, they do try to make explicit something important about a relationship. Sometimes, of course, that's exactly what we need to do. And, if the testimonial system is working for you, fine. For some people in some situations it's going to be exactly what they need, Nevertheless, you can only build a real social network by overcoming clarity and precision. Groups form by creating messy darkness. A team "bonds" as the relationships among the members become so tangly and ambiguous that the members can no longer sum one another up in a few words, much less by reference to their official roles. A mailing list becomes more than just a distribution channel when, over time, the participants learn enough about one another through the implicit body language of messages that their off-hand descriptions — "She's a curmudgeon" "He's a total geek" — feel inadequate. Our most important relationships — our family, for example — we can't fathom fully much less explain clearly. Groups become real through ambiguity, messiness, the implicit and the unspoken. We can be somewhat precise and somewhat explicit about these real relationships, but there's a price to pay: Any clear and explicit description I gave you of my daughter would obscure more than it showed, and would have an effect on my relationship with her if she were to read it here. Artificial Social Networks like Orkut get it backwards. They are built on explicit and precise declarations of relationship. Does this mean they're worthless and doomed? Not at all, although I personally am finding Orkut to be all maintenance and no value. Humans are so doggedly social (hmm, something wrong with that sentence!) that we take every instance of proximity as an opportunity for relationship, and we overcome every obstacle to find someone else to care about: A line for tickets becomes a nonce encounter group if the movie is sold out, and even prisoners in solitary will tap on the walls to talk with someone they may never see. (BTW, what exactly is the baud rate for cell-wall tapping?) So, connect millions of us by digital lines that are clear and precise, and we'll figure out some way to overcome the system's limitations and bring it into genuine sociality. Something will emerge. We just can't tell what yet. Posted
by D. Weinberger at February 2, 2004 09:46 AM
TrackBackListed below are links to weblogs that reference Clear, precise...and problematic:
» Relationships And Technology from Nollind Whachell Tracked on February 2, 2004 02:46 PM
» Fuzzy Logic from this Public Address 3.0 Tracked on February 2, 2004 03:31 PM
» Relationships And Technology from Nollind Whachell Tracked on February 2, 2004 10:11 PM
» Quick Links, February 03 from hebig.org/blog Tracked on February 3, 2004 03:38 AM
» Beziehungen, echt und digital from Das E-Business Weblog Tracked on February 3, 2004 05:00 AM
» Beziehungen, echt und digital from Das E-Business Weblog Tracked on February 3, 2004 05:01 AM
» Orkut, Google, and Friends from AKMA’s Random Thoughts Tracked on February 3, 2004 08:38 AM
» Introvertster: Revenge of the Anti-Buddy from SocialTwister Tracked on February 7, 2004 07:05 PM |
Comments
"Humans are so doggedly social"... hmm, must be the Dr. Weimaraner effect! ;-)
Posted by: Yule Heibel | February 2, 2004 06:34 PM
I like it for it's streght apply to the problem!
Posted by: Lina | February 3, 2004 03:58 AM
David, You missed something important, I think. Orkut is not asking you to choose whether Phil is your friend or not. Orkut is allowing you to ask Phil if he wants to add you as his friend.
I blogged at 4 this morning about what happened to Susan Kitchens -- we connected in a special and odd way (and odd for me at this point in the blogging game means odd) -- simply because neither one of us read the "add as friend" button as anything other than that: add as friend.
That could mean Phil's my friend; OR, Hey, Phil, I haven't seen you in ten years!; OR damn, I wish Phil were my friend; or, Phil, wanna be my new friend; or Phil, check out what communities I'm in; or Phil, you know David too?; Or Phil, wanna get laid?
It depends on the clicker and the clickee.
The missing piece is a comment field you could add a little message in when you "add as friend" to explain why. I for one am not going to bother sending pre-add-as-friend emails. Yick. Either be my friend or don't--but go read my profile and my blog and I bet you'll see why I clicked you.
As for the rating stuff, it'll change. Look at the login page. They assumed 20-somethings would jump on this thing by the truckload and run off into the peppy, skinny, way cool, california-blonde sunset.
What they got was US.
hee heee.
Posted by: jeneane | February 3, 2004 09:25 AM
Jeneane, adding comments would make the friendship category more nuanced but would also make it more explicit, which (IMO) is often a BIG problem. I think it might be worse to reject someone who's given some heartfelt reason for wanting to connect than just having the binary on-off switch.
There are two axes -- precise/ambiguous and implict/explicit -- and Artificial Social Networks can go wrong in either direction. The problem is that I don't see how they can go right in both because then they become blogs, mailing lists, and the Web itself...stuff we already have.
But you're right that I mischaracterized the nature of the request (i.e., not "will you be my friend"). And I love your ending. I feel soooo old and dumpy when I log in.
Posted by: David Weinberger | February 3, 2004 11:30 AM
Having travelled pretty much the exact same loop with the Friendster thing, I think Orkut has helped me figure out at least one source of my general, ill-defined queasiness with this whole category - just by the way it uses those little passport photos to depict one's network of friends.
Orkut = baseball cards. Simple as that.
This is what’s so cool and, at the same time, so sucky about it. It’s just a big online reality trading card game.
It's the feeling of being collected, or, even worse, being perceived as a collector (shades of John Fowles) that bothers me so.
I've blogged this at some length, here.
At the same time, I have to confess that I am enjoying Orkut, much to my surprise. For various reasons, most of which I'm not terribly comfortable owning up to...
Posted by: Michael O'Connor Clarke | February 4, 2004 05:53 PM
I discontinued use of Orkut (and Ryze). I continued my use of LinkedIn.
I know why I'm using LinkedIn: to find business prospects or partners. I have no idea why someone wants to link with me on Orkut. All "friendships" are equal on Orkut, but not in real life.
Plus, I have enough friendships offline. In fact, they're the same people who contact me about membership on Orkut!
Redundancy, be gone.
By way of contrast, with LinkedIn, I not only can see who's contacting whom else -- very cool -- but I can facilitate the connection, an act of gift-giving with positive personal rewards. I know what we're trying to do: find value. And I can accept or reject on objective, not political, grounds.
Posted by: Bob Jacobson | February 16, 2004 12:06 AM
I wasnt invited by anyone. God im so disappointed in my lousy friends. Just because i wasnt already a member everyone thinks im not interested. Man i need to move to a new country and start over. Could someone send me invite a_mal3@yahoo.com I have some revenge to take kill bill style
Posted by: Steve | June 10, 2004 06:25 AM
I would LOVE to have an Orkut account! Can someone send an invitation to my email address? My name is Bryan Hurley, and I'm a college student majoring in CS.
hurls103@hotmail.com
Posted by: Bryan | June 16, 2004 08:48 PM
bilder
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Posted by: Faisal | May 27, 2006 06:40 AM
I would LOVE to have an Orkut account! Can someone send an invitation to my email address? My name is Badrinath, my email address is badri13@yahoo.com, badri13@gamil.com
Thanks in advance,
Badrinath
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