We are all social animals. Some are more so than others, but it is hard to imagine life without a network of friends and family members. When I reflect on my social networks, I can see how they have changed over life time. Moreover, these changes have been driven primarily by technology.
While growing up in India, with almost no telephones around, the only way to make friends and make them a part of your network was through physically being at the same place at the same time. That meant knocking on doors, or gathering to play at home or in a field at a previously agreed time.
When I moved away from my town for studies, I could have written letters to keep in touch with the old friends, but that did not happen often. Except for occasional letters to my parents, I did not correspond much. The only time I revived my old contacts was when I went back home.
Telephone had arrived by then, but the use was primarily for local calls. My parents were the primary users. We did not use it to chitchat with friends. Also, there was an issue that many of them were not privileged to having telephones in their homes. Walking over to their houses was the only way to maintain the social network.
Then, I moved to US and a whole set of new challenges presented themselves in maintaining the old network. Although public phones were around, we did not use them for overseas calls--- that was way too expensive. Writing letters---using “aerograms”, as they were called, or lightweight stationary--- were the only ways to keep in touch. For more urgent communication, there was a little more expensive alternative, a telegram.
Somehow, through letters, I was able to keep in touch with a selected group of people back home. However, I now had a set of friends in the new country. When not physically meeting them, I kept in touch using telephone calls. All local, mind you, and all on landlines.
The next innovation was electronic mail, or email. Now a letter could be sent instantaneously to whoever had an email address. Thanks to AOL (America-On-Line), I started communicating with people all over the world. Pretty soon, I had the capability to send group emails, so communication with a whole bunch of people became possible. Keeping the social network going was now relatively easy.
Then came cell phones and our ability to connect went up. Initially, they were just phones and there was no text function, but I could communicate from where ever there was a cell phone signal. When we had smart phones, I could start texting people so they could communicate at their leisure. Thanks to applications like “WhatsApp”, it was now possible to connect with people in India, or around the world, without any charges.
Social media applications, such as FaceBook, changed the paradigm of social network once again. Now it was possible to post photos that people in in my network could see. Not only was it possible to keep in touch with folks around the world, but also see what they were up to, even in minute details. Interestingly, I could now get in touch with people I had lost contact with. FaceBook was helping me revive old networks and relationships.
Further, people I had physically met while on travel could keep in touch with me long after the event, using FaceBook or other similar social media offerings. This group of new friends included fellow travelers or local guides we had met while travelling.
Having an active social network no longer required physical proximity, as when I started. Now, I could keep in touch with a much more extended network around the world.
As I look at the situation now, a common theme in my social network, as defined above, is that with a very few exceptions, I have met all people in my network at least once. That is not true with, say, a hobby related network I belong to, Flickr. We all in that network have a shared interest in photography, or, creating visual images, but have never met.
Over the fifteen years, I have made “friends” with other photographers. We post photos (or images) and make comments on each other’s work. However, I have never met them, nor do I have too much information on them. Most often, I do not even know what they look like or what part of the world do they live.
The progression in technology already makes it possible to meet these people, say through holograms or virtual reality glasses. The only thing missing is the social need. If that hurdle is overcome, there will come the day when we will all be in the same room, virtually. I will meet all my Flickr friends---Mark, Tim, Victor, Renee, Silene, Sonja, Amba, Maarten--- and interact with them just as I did with my friends in the old home town.
It would be like the good old days, except, the much larger network will be international and include friends I have never physically met, or likely to meet.
