With regards to your point about the hypothetical @sean376 – do you expect me to meet up with every PR graduate because you've said I should do? I try and help out in dissertations when I can and will help most people (ask any work experience whose ever come through the PN doors or any of the grads) but that is my choice whether I do or not. I can't physically meet up with everyone I've connected with, and to be honest I don't want to.

Jed – top post and thanks for stirring up some much needed debate

Interesting post. I suppose in some ways your right. Social media is really just another form on communication among existing relationships. But what defines a relationship? In my opinion, communication is the cornerstone of any relationship in life. The arrival of social media has added a new platform for communication. It is such a force that is has changed the very nature of communication and in essence changed the very nature of our relationships. Who we are on twitter, facebook, myspace is a representation of who we are in our lives.

Social media does add value to our relationships, but it also does alter them. Ask any girl who has yelled at her boyfriend for that “suspicious wallpost” another girl left on his wall. A fight that would have never existed if facebook wasnt around.

The original point was about how the Internet is or is not changing the way we form and maintain relationships, yes?

Jed, I think the disconnect here is when you use the word relationship as interchangeable with friendship. They are different, and on that point, I 100% agree with Davies.

The whole PR clique thing and public debate about whether or not an overzealous grad should be taken out for a beer is just playground gossip.

Part 1:

I totally disagree that the internet isn’t a life-changing tool, I’ve rated it with the printing press before in terms of it’s revolutionary power – it’s a hugely influential tool that has already changed the world (i’m sure you already know this).

Foursquare is currently available for lots of cities across the US and London, specifically London, not Leeds. While people in Leeds may sign up, it’s no surprise that on a tool aimed at London users, most of the updates will be somewhat London-centric (and i’m sure you know this too).

I fundamentally disagree with the main statements (after you get back to your main points) – Myspace (and it’s spin-offs) DID change the music industry. Artists like Lily Allen, The Arctic Monkey’s and an infinite amount of other bands across the morass of musical genres have used Myspace as a jump off to previously unreachable fanbases – it only takes a cursory look to see artists like You Me At Six and Paramore alongside the aforementioned using the social media tools that are available to make music careers for themselves. Facebook is somewhat more contentious but I will say that I have personally used it to meet up with people that I never thought I would speak to again – both my parents (fast approaching retirement age) have also rekindled old friendships – friendships that I refuse to believe would have reformed without the ‘book.

I tend to agree with Jed in that people are acting in very similar ways online as they are offline but people aren’t believing it will change behavioural characteristics (outside of the amount of hours we spend doing different tasks each day) but the reach of our communication. We’ve had e-mail for some time and that was great but it’s only in recent years we’ve had the ability to communicate anything that we wanted (except large physical objects) instantaneously. I think the development of Wave highlights this new level of reach and diversity – while “Jason” may be great, if you need to send a whole working document to Jason in Singapore and it just so happens that you haven’t physically seen Jason in 5 years then tools like Wave are going to help ease your working relationship.Perhaps you’re right, perhaps these tools aren’t the biggest change for you and the friends you go to the pub with but then that’s not their sole use, the opportunities reach far and wide.

It makes sense to make friends, I’m friends with Litman (amongst others from the “community”), our friendship was probably kindled online, developed offline and is now maintained throughout the two – I also have people that I am not likely to meet offline perhaps because they live absolutely shitting miles away – on the other side of the world perhaps. I would still consider that ‘relationship’ to have value and more importantly, be meaningful. It’s meaningful not because I can manipulate it, but because it’s nice to communicate – the whole of human civilisation is built on interaction which is why the printing press, telephone, radio and television were all such MASSIVE creations. The internet (and social media) is (and are) no different

Part 2:

In terms of the exclusive club – it is an exclusive club – It doesn’t have a members list but there certainly is a sort minor in-crowd which is developed inside the communities – I don’t personally think it’s an issue – it’s built out of respect for those people that attend – as the original post said, I’m pretty sure most PR grads aren’t losing sleep over it, they’re probably just hanging out with their non-internet friends but, while you don’t need to be friends with every PR graduate but maybe, just maybe (thank you lottery) some of them have something interesting to say.

Now, i’m off for a beer with @Sean367 at one of the many members clubs around London built just for us.

@michael – I’m going to be somebody someday, you just watch.

I’m not sure that I agree that the internet will not change lives. It has certainly changed behaviours and the development path of various technologies. That said it changes different people’s lives in different ways, for us hyper-connected peeps it makes more impact than say my Dad. That said my (very nearly)septuagenarian Pops uses Skype to keep in touch with family and is plotting out the family tree using the plethora of geneology sites.

What the internet does is enble relationship that perhaps would not have existed to be started and given a chance to develop. Take you and Timbo. Pre-internet days, it is possible that you would’ve meet at some PR and journo networking do. You would have got along wonderfully but that might have been it. You may have exchanged business cards and called the other up when you were in town to meet for a beer. Or perhaps not. Yes, the important thing is that you had enough in common to build a relationship, but due to distance without the internet would it be where it is now?

Sorry, waffling on a bit this morning – point is this. Yes real life is important, meeting someone cements the relationship, but the internet enables us to develop budding relationships and keep them alive despite the lack of physical proximity.

Apologies if this comment makes it sound like you and Time should be annoucing your engagement in the near future

Plus you need to work on your apostrophes – won’t not wont etc.

Otherwise, keep blogging. Keep the faith.
C