Are we there yet?

We all have “those” friends on Facebook that we can’t stand. Shoot, sometimes it’s our own family members. The distant cousin who can’t post without dropping the F-bomb. An Aunt who decides Facebook is her soap box to tell everyone how horrible President Obama is. Which makes me wonder, are we experiencing a saturation of social experiences that negate the very reason for connecting with each other? I read a couple different posts this week that lead me to believe we are starting to shift from mass consumption & mass networks, to targeted and selective consumption with meaningful & useful relationship.

Amber Naslund (@ambercadabra), VP of Social Strategy for Radian6, writes in her latest blog post at brasstackthinking.com, “It can be easy to get swept up in wanting more connections, more nodes, more superficial touches that make you feel surrounded and supported and even liked or heard.” In her blog, she opens up about things she wants her friends to know. And she asks others to join in as well. Some of the most interesting and rewarding relationships have come from my connections on twitter.

While showing vulnerability, this novel idea demonstrates how we are truly longing to make authentic connections in our online communications. What we are looking for in social communication is evolving. We realize the difference between an acquaintance and an authentic connection. And we no longer want to waste our time on weak connections. We’re ready to cut through the superfluous to get to the meat of what our online relationships are all about.

This goes for both the relationships we make and the tools we use online. Colleen Pence (@colleenpence) of Social Media Mentoring tweets “…realizing that the technology that used to inspire & thrill me is dragging me down & making me sad/disoriented/worn out.”

Enter Google+. In an article on CNN, a recent Harvard grad who has been invited to use Google+ during its trial stage, says “I saw Facebook and twitter as marketing tools, not social networks for my benefit. But I joined Google+ immediately because I trust that Google makes its products for the benefit of the Internet consumers…makes being on the Internet more efficient and specific to the kind of information I’m consuming.” Another student says, “Now that we have all learned what a social network really is, and realized that it doesn’t really help to have 1,000+ friends, I look forward to starting afresh with Google+ by only adding the people that I regularly keep in contact with.”

We are ready to cut through the superficial social clutter and devote our time and energy towards the select relationships that mean the most to us, and the tools that allow us to do it more efficiently.

So, on this roller coaster ride to the destination of fulfilling the human need for full, rewarding relationships, I have to ask, are we there yet? Are you on superficial relationship overdrive & technology overload? Are you into micro-communities or do you prefer having a large group of casual “friends”?

Let me know what you think!