To Connect Is Human – Impact and Importance Of Social Networking

I am a statistics guy .. I love glancing at all kinda data. I know for a fact that most statistics are just numbers and mean nothing more … But statistics at times can prove somethings.

One of the recent numbers that exited me is that there are around 1.1 billion internet users and a good 3 billion mobile phone users !! I have nothing against mobile phones, but I’m more the internet guy as my friends call me, the number 1.1 billion exited me; a billion who use Messengers; a billion who e-mail every day; and lately in India we have a lot of social networks popping up almost every single day some of the famous ones being Ibibo, Orkut and Myspace.

If one observes,in the last few years, the online phenomenon has become a very important phenomenon, the most important part – it has become the second life. All this mostly because of Web 2.0 and more prominently because of the Social Networks.

Social networking sites like myspace, orkut and such, and Web 2.0 sites like youtube, and Social bookmarking sites like digg, delicious have raked in 100’s of millions of users in less than 4-5 years. Carefully observe them and you’ll notice that all these sites have human link-ups.

These sites nurture human communication in a better manner, create platforms for like minded individuals to share their thoughts and opinions and most, important of all lets users exchange content. Most of these successful sites have been an instant success, they have been globally accepted by all, with no language, cultural or racial barriers. All this was possible as a result of manifestation of technology.

We love to connect – with real people – at times even just for a duel. Think about it, there are chances that we might do this by creating virtual identities for ourself in Second Life. Some of us also might satisfy our desires to be someone else. But eventually we are doing this to connect with other humans (even if the person sitting at the other end is represented by a virtual identity them self).

Networking sites or the second life as I call it are making it clear, what a technological innovation in online space needs, in order to be successful. To become a global success and to scale up to levels higher, the innovators must put in a pinch of human connect to their sites – it doesn’t matter even if it is virtual