Title: The Problem With Social Networks (As If There Was Only One...) Date: 6 January 2008 URL: https://ralovely.com/blog/2008/01/06/the-problem-with-social-networks-as-if-there-was-only-one/ Author: Raphael Campardou Archived: yes --- This is an old post, kept here for posterity. Some links may be broken, opinions may have changed, and technology has certainly moved on. --- The Problem With Social Networks: **Multiple personalities.** All of us - as human beings - have many aspects. We come in many flavors. That's what makes human interactions so complex and interesting. There is a _Working-You_, a _Family-You_, a _Friendly-You_... More than that, for each one of these _Yous_ there are different versions. At work, you don't behave the same with your boss's boss and with your co-worker in the next cubicle. With family, there is the _yearly great-great-aunt's family reunion You_, and the _Sunday's garden Hot Dog party with your 3 brothers and their wives and kids You_. The same goes with friends. Then there are the places. If you're in the street, in a theatre, in a cosy restaurant, or at home, you won't behave exactly the same. All this is for a regular quiet life. It gets trickier when there's _your wife's You_ and _that cute little blond girl you met at work's You_... Topics of conversation, vocabulary, plain behaviour, won't be the same. This guy I work with (or more precisely, I work in the same company as he), sends me an invite to be friend on Facebook. Two options: trying not to be rude, accepting the invite OR being consistent, refusing the invite: WE ARE NOT FRIENDS. (I'm not talking about the networking use of Facebook - interesting thought by Seth Godin [here](http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/01/who-you-know.html) though). Or This great conversations I have with my WOW guild isn't of any interest for my wife. Worse, the more I talk about it, the more she resent it. Or This project I want to discuss only with my closest family doesn't concern any of my friends, even less my so called-facebook-friends. There are a few initiatives in this direction. [HonestyBox](http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2552096927) is a great Facebook App, it brings something really missing. You can send a message anonymously. At last, you can be something else than just _polite_ or _nice_. There are also private social networks or VIP-only social networks. [ModelsHotel](http://modelshotel.com/index.php?mode=about) is one of them. As Michael Arrington said: [If You're Not A Model, Don't Bother Reading This](http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/10/if-youre-not-a-model-dont-bother-reading-this/). So where is the solution ? You can have as many social account as personalities. This can become hard to track... You can try and set a really complex permission/privacy panel on the one and only network you choose (if it has this kind of option, today, I don't know any that has). Clearly these are not real options. That leaves room for innovation... \[update 2008-02-27\]: [Seth Godin](http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/02/that-guy-who-sa.html) said it with his words (yes, they are better than mine. He is the marketing guru. Not me...). --- For the humans reading the machine-readable version: hello. You're thorough. I appreciate that.