We are in the middle of a thousand networks: family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances. And then there’s the Internet, where arise a thousand other interactions that facilitate the circulation of ideas and are running the economy, as told by a book, “Two and a half degrees of separation” (Domitilla Ferrari Sperling & Kupfer, pp. . 192, € 17), which will be presented next Friday during Social Media Week in Milan.
The experiment
Into 1967, the American psychologist Stanley Milgram asked 160 people to get a parcel to a person that is several thousand kilometers. The senders did not have the recipient’s address: had to send the parcel to an acquaintance, asking him to do the same and send forward chain. In most cases sufficed between five and seven steps to deliver packages. The experiment confirmed the “theory of small-world ‘between one person and another, there are at most six degrees of separation. With email, forums, chats and social networks, today they have become 3.2 degrees of separation, and in some cases even less.
“Facebook helps you connect and stay in touch with the people in your life,” reads the page for access to the largest social network in the world, who just turned ten years and a billion subscribers. In addition to friendships and feelings, you will find news and even job offers. The trick is not to share everything with everyone, by setting carefully the privacy settings (also applies to Google Plus). Before posting a comment, ask yourself: “This I would tell my grandmother?” If the answer is no, give up.
Born to gather information professional, in recent times there has been much enlarged Linkedin, the criteria have become more elastic and the utility of the network has been questioned. Better to have a few contacts but real, better to have a few reviews but sincere. Also important that the profile is accompanied by a photo and written in English, because job opportunities can come from all over the world. The worst thing? Do not update the data, denoting sloppiness.
discuss, exchange knowledge, establish relationships. Twitter forces you to condense your thoughts into 140 characters, and not everyone can. But it allows you to communicate directly with artists and politicians, eliminating the middleman. Two tricks to manage it better: hashtags or keywords, and the lists are essential to group your contacts into groups. And to make a good impression, it is essential to intervene on any topic.
There seems to be a social network, Instagram and yet it has all the features: you can follow someone, comment on his photo, navigate with the hashtag between recipes, hairstyles and kittens. Much used by the young, is also full of celebrities, from Madonna to Stefano Gabbana. Here, too, you share a piece of himself and enters into a relationship with strangers who have our own interests. Useful for discovering new places.
Foursquare
used to communicate where we are. Born in 2009, is a bit ‘social networks and a little’ game, with badges and awards depending on the activity: useful to know what is said of a local or a store. And if another checked-in in the place where you could be right next to you: great for unexpected events.
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