"What do you do?"

I'm not trying to start a trend or anything with these questions as blog titles but, I thought about this when I was looking over some articles on social networking. To start this off let's pretend that I'm introducing two of my friends, Steven and Enrique, to each other for the first time. Here is a snippet of the typical dialogue...

Steven: Hi, Enrique. It's good to meet you.

Enrique: You, too. Manuel has told me great things about you.

Steven: Haha, he is such a gadabout. So... what do you do?

Enrique: I work for the Federal Government.


I'm thinking it could be me, or maybe just a DC thing but, the "What do you do?" question always comes up within minutes of meeting someone new. Beware that there are many forms of this questions; it does not have to be those words specifically.

More people are focusing on building their social networks, especially with the rocky economy and unpredictable job market. It’s the whole “who you know” thing. I understand that the question can be used to stimulate conversation. Besides, you know that it’s going to happen. But, when it comes so early in the dialogue I wonder about the motives of the asker. So, what happens next?

Steven will probably begin to solicit more details about Enrique’s occupation and try to discover any commonalities and mutual friends. Steven is sub-consciously assessing the value of knowing Enrique and remembering key elements that might be useful in the future when taping into either of their social networks.

We still don’t know Steven’s occupation. Either way, whatever Steven says will be a crucial factor in how he is positioned in Enrique’s social network and will have a significant influence on the outcome of this initial meeting.

Let’s hope Steven can bring something to the table.

"Are you on Facebook?"

Clive Thompson's article "Real-World Social Networks vs. Facebook Friends" discusses how new technology is demonstrating the true differences and power that evolves from a naturally created social network vs. those set up by a company's organizational chart. The article focuses on information flow among the different types of networks and also touches on our virtual social networks like Facebook. As I was reading the article, I could not stop thinking about the new friendships, relationships, hookups, etc. that we are creating via Facebook these days.

I think back to when Facebook was starting up. Those were days when two people actually met each other in person, and knew one another, before sending and accepting friend requests. Nowadays, friend requests are going between every Tom, Dick, and Harry just because you've seen them standing across the room at a social event or have some mutual friends. Even when meeting someone new in person, I'm surprised that sometimes the first question in exchanging contact information is --"Are you on Facebook?"

Whether it's dating or friendship, this symbolizes a paradigm shift in how we get to know people in order to build relationships. We use to exchange numbers, meet up a few times, and really get to know a person Face-t0-Face. This is being replaced by Face-to-Facebook time in where we over analyze a profile and form opinions before even thinking about sending a message, or making a wall post, to meet up next weekend for drinks. In some cases, this takes the fun out of a normal conversation because you already know so much from your online investigation.

Next time you meet someone new, think about refraining from a quick Facebook connection. There is something to be said about having a little mystery.

Day 1 on the blog

Ok... It took me a little bit to get set up but, I'm good now. It's my first day on here and I'm ready to get started.

I'm a student blogging for class. On my honor, all posts on this blog are my own. Thanks!