Digital Intimacy, ambient awareness and Granovetter

Well, a wonderful article in last week's New York Times explains why people need to know Granovetter better. Brave New World of Digital Intimacy discusses how ambient awareness is changing how we relate to our weak ties, how they strengthen (but in a parasocial sort of way). The article explains why micro-blogging works and how digital phenomena like that can also build community. Not online community but real world community in the concrete jungles that more and more of us live in now. Don't miss this article, I nearly did.

As we move beyond the hype phase of social media and into one where the proof will be in the pudding, I am willing to bet that a lot more people will start paying attention to people like Mark Granovetter. They need to otherwise, it'll be hard to explain why some user experiences work and others fail. Why some campaigns go viral and others don't. Why crisis management can be its own crisis in some instances but a breeze in other cases. Folks, its time to put your disdain for academia to one side and pay attention to this stuff. Your job maybe on the line.