friends – Page 2 – Rob Mansfield: Content-ment

I went out for drink the other night with someone I’d never met before. With the consent of my other half, I might add.

This person was someone I’ve got to know online, not through a dodgy chatroom, but through similar interests on a social networking website, in this case last.fm.

For me, it just highlights the power of the internet and how you no longer have to venture out on a cold dark night to a smelly village hall, or upstairs room in a pub to meet people who potentially have like-minded interests and you might get on with.

Clearly, there’s no replacement for the enjoyment of meeting friends in a bar and chatting about stuff, but if you don’t know people who share your interest in underwater basket-weaving, there are bound to be people online who do and they may not live in the same country, but you can swap tips and stories.

I must confess that my night out was a bit nerve-wracking. Neither of us were 100% sure what the other looked like and given that we’d never physically spoken, we weren’t actually sure that we’d get on once we sat opposite each other with a pint in our hands.

We needn’t have worried. A cracking night was had and there will hopefully be many more. More power to Web 2.0!

Have you ever done that thing where you have a party and you invite lots of different friends from different parts of your life (job, university friends, social club), many of who don’t know each other that well, or have perhaps never met?

Sometimes it works, but sometimes it doesn’t and, on those occasions when it doesn’t, you think afterwards, “good job that doesn’t happen very often!”

Well, now a similar thing is happening online. With the likes of Facebook, Last.fm, MySpace, Bebo, Virb (I could go on), people have lots of different personas and can be different with different groups of friends. But for some people, this is too much effort and various start-ups are suggesting the idea of having all your social networking buddies in the same place

Are you kidding? Why? I love the fact that people who know my music taste, don’t really know much about Friday Cities and the accompanying community there. As for Facebook – well, almost everyone is on there already.

I also have some friends, who just “don’t do” social media. So they won’t be part of my online life and that’s fine and dandy.

Quit trying to “synergise” everything!