so i have to admit, i’ve been sucked in. online communities have existed since the advent of the internet, starting with dial-up bbs forums, moving on to irc, forums, webrings, etc. when we look back at the short history of the internet, we can see that it’s always been and always will be a social network. humans are social beings, and we yearn for communication. the other day i was talking to josue about how weird it is that so many people have intimate relationships online with absolute strangers. he didn’t find it weird at all:

it’s like being at a bar and telling your whole life to the bartender

we crave interactivity, we need to reach out and connect. more and more youth are online, and this is creating waves throughout our culture. one thing that i’ve noticed with the growth of the new web is an extreme tendency to broadcast and plugin. we want to be plugged in to every group, sharing information across cultures, boarders, race, sex, class, etc. we want you to know what we are doing at every single second of the day. we are sharing what we like, what we eat, where we play, what pisses us off, what music we listening to, and worst of all what we’re doing at this very minute.

it is an emarketer’s wet dream, but how do you control a network that is so loose, chaotic, and decentralized. of course there are nodes, and they are easily trackable with the write piece of software, or the coolest cool hunter. businesses, politicians, not-for-profits, and your cousin’s best friend’s mom are all using social networking sites to plugin and broadcast their message. will the youth listen? with such a huge web, with infinite amount of choices who is going to influence you more, george bush’s myspace page, or a cute boy that you met online from morroco who likes reggeaton?