When it comes to social networking, defining your relationship with someone is the first (and maybe the most difficult) task to complete. For one thing, with a socially saturated web, users manage multiple accounts across dozens of networks, each with a plethora of relationships. If you’re anything like me, you’ve created more beta accounts than you can possibly keep track, you can contact your real-life friends in at least six different ways, and at the end of the day you’re not sure where your online content belongs.
I use at least eight separate accounts and tools across the web, and I write for three separate blogs. Many of the sites I frequent offer similar tools and services, whether it’s email/messaging or photo management. Yet, despite all these tools, I continue to sign up elsewhere for new accounts, many of which offer similar services. What’s the deal? Why sign up for new services if I already have everything I need and then some? Well, it’s fun, but usually it’s my curiosity that guides me. I’m always asking myself, “What will this site do differently?”
The first thing I usually look for: friends. Or more specifically, how I can organize them. Social organization emerges as one of the main features that’s handled differently from site to site. While there are some basic standards, I have yet to find a site that offers a truly functional organizational system which mirrors real life, but remains basic enough to survive an online setting. Let’s take a look at some of the sites kids are using these days, and the functionality of their social organization.
Myspace - Everyone’s your friend!
Everyone from your next door neighbor to that creepy dude who won’t stop sending friend requests is lumped into the beefy, unmanageable category of “Friends,” which cannot be alphebetized, ordered, or reimagined in any way other than the notorious “Top 8”—a category which provides no real additional functionality or differentiation.
Last.fm - Too much control = zero functionality?
With last.fm, relationships become too specific. While any user you’ve befriended technically remains in the same basic “contact” category, on another level every user you’ve befriended can have their own category, depending on the way you label them. Awkward prepositional phrases aside (“Bobby is the friend of” only goes so far), it’s nice to be able to specify every unique relationship, but in terms of a broader database that reaches between users, this system isn’t very useful.
Flickr - Basic functionality doesn’t always cut it.
Flickr allows users to separate contacts into three separate categories—friends, family, and contacts. One would presume that “friends” should be equated with real-life friends, family with family, contacts with online friends, or some other intuitive combination. Friends and family, in actuality, serve as one category, since both can see private photos hidden from other users.
Yet it’s tempting to use this hierarchy in another fashion. With the “photos from your contacts” page and “photos from family and friends,” one can separate favorite photographers into the “family and friends” category, while everyone else remains at the “contact” level. This way, it’s easier to access favorite photos on a daily basis. Shouldn’t flickr’s design allow for this kind of differentiation? “I love your photos”-type contacts, versus real-life friends whose photos help you keep in touch?
Vimeo - Contacts vs. subscriptions: a step in the right direction.
Vimeo, like flickr, uses a basic social structure, but embraces simplicity. There are “contacts,” and then there are other users to whose clips you can subscribe. “Contacts,” then, can be people you consider close, and subscriptions people you don’t know but admire. Simple, effective, and user-controlled, without restrictive labels like “Friends & Family.”
Facebook - A step in the right direction?
Facebook offers all the customization of last.fm when it comes to defining relationships with other users, but has an automated, functional, navigable system to back it up. “How do you know this person?” comes up each time you add a new contact, and you can opt to skip the step or get as specific as you like—the user decides. It’s impressive that such a detailed system is so automated and searchable. Separate contacts by category, school, region, you pick!
Which system works for you? What’s your favorite way to organize?
