The Social Networker

Virtual Gratification Syndrome (VGS) - Profile of a Social Networker
by Chris Miller at 06:51:00 PM on Monday, May 12th, 2008
A recent search against my blog prompted me to actually define the profile of a social networker with  VGS (click to view the entire series) With the complexity of the affliction, who rightfully falls under the category "Social Networker" ?

Could you point them out in a crowd?  Are they required to wear little widgets on their clothes showing their affiliation with specific sites?  Would a t-shirt with the words  
DiigoMyPownceFaceTwit
help the process of identification?

Let's explore some.

An immediate warning sign of an overindulger might be one of the following as the Person in Question does the following:
  • has accounts on most major social network sites
  • has accounts on most unknown social network sites
  • must get access to all beta programs on social network sites
  • runs social networking standalone apps (such as Twihrl and Facebook chat clients)
  • has added numerous plug-ins to browsers to make accessing social network sites in mass easier
  • loaded an application like Flock to attempt bringing sites into one interface

Any of the above alone might make you think you have strongly identified a social networker.  But, that really doesn't define a profile of one now does it?  It describes behavior and attempt through actions instead.

A true profile is:
  •  a person with an underlying need to be part of a larger community, either through virtualization or in real life
    • Some go so far as to bring the two together by meeting with the virtual community in places such as conferences or gatherings at local bars and Panera's Bread locations
    • This person finds themselves knowing more about strangers than family, even with some of the information being falsely presented
    • The profile allows some variance for those that actual Google another person to gather as much information to verify what is being told.  Others take the word of referrers as a voucher for someone they want as part of their community
    • This person finds a fixed set of tools that must be running at all times, even on mobile devices

    Another part of the profile is:
    •  the unwillingness to not be online to keep up with the never ending flow of information presented
    • This person will spend hours each day going back through the history of sites to catch up where they went to bed the night or even days before

    An advanced profile shows:
    •  those with higher than average technical skills able to create RSS feeds and Yahoo pipes to stream the information in a cleansed format.
    • the ability to bring interaction into web, chat and widgets
    • any attempt to find a single tool that not only allows blacklisting of specific information (such as Facebook birthdays), but postings on when someone drinks coffee

    As you can see, this is only the beginning of a true serial profile creation process.  As the social networker role emerges, we will be able to fully define and point these people out in a crowd.  Shirt or no shirt
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Location: St. Louis, MO		 Category:  Technical 
Tags : View blog reactions
  • 1) Virtual Gratification Syndrome (VGS) - Profile of a Social Networker
    Created by isle at 05/12/2008 7:48:41 PM email | website

    I think shirts will help. Somebody CafePress a few VGS shirts, add a "my name is" red sticker, with space to sharpy one's @twitter handle, I'll buy one. I don't really need one, the tweeting Treo and binging Twhirl on the laptop gives me away, but hey. I can stump more locals with the "What the heck is Twitter" thing.

    @isle (just 'cause...you know.)

  • 2) re: Virtual Gratification Syndrome (VGS) - Profile of a Social Networker
    Created by Chris Miller at 05/12/2008 7:55:59 PM email | website

    I shall CafePress away..

  • 3) Virtual Gratification Syndrome (VGS) - Profile of a Social Networker
    Created by Corvida at 05/12/2008 9:09:31 PM email | website

    Don't forget to add "DiigoMyPownceFaceTwit" shirt too :D


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Yes this is a blatant theft of the outline that Jess uses on her page, but I asked permission. Why?? Because I am a hardcore admin and can make ugly tables to make you developers frustrated, but this was too nice to pass up.

Also Known As: Chris Miller (when awake)

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Yes, I write some of those dreaded admin cert exams you take. I won't say which ones so you don't come looking for me, but I will say they are the real good recent ones that have been coming out.

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One dog, a Pug. He has been on this world before and seems to understand slippers and a fine cigar. Mind you that is him in the chair and not me.

Let us now also add a deranged cat that is in the process of being toilet trained. Update: Toilet traning was very very close.

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Non-stop. At my desk, in my car, walking to work and back to my car downtown. In the house there is a crazy zoned set-up for you home automation geeks.

I am a self-proclaimed MP3 fiend, to which I have tried rehab 4 billion times to no avail. Next is the MP3 hard-drive for the car that I found. Now what kind of music you ask? I will never tell.

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Geek class special abilities:

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Skills:

Get back to you here

Spells:

Hershey’s Stomach of Holding: Jess and I are fighting over who eats more chocolate. TWDUFF can help me out and vouch for me.

Character Bio:

This will take far more time than I have today. I will start with I was born and still live in St. Louis, MO. Even though for a couple years I was never, ever here and always on the road, this is smack in the middle of the US. Everything is just a few hour flight. That part is nice. No beach/ocean/coast isn't the best. But with the travel I make up for it.

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