Are you being social in real life?

By Mark Drapeau

Microsoft Director of Social Innovation Mark Drapeau discusses the importance of ‘real’ relationships in social media and asks government, ‘Are you being social in real life?’

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About Mark Drapeau

Dr. Mark Drapeau is Director of Innovative Social Engagement for Microsoft's U.S. Public Sector division in Washington, D.C. He is also an adjunct professor at the School of Media and Public Affairs of The George Washington University, and until recently a research fellow at the Center for Technology and National Security Policy in Washington, DC. Mark is also a contributing writer for Federal Computer Week, where he writes about emerging media technologies and how they are changing government and the balance of power in society. Mark is also a co-founder of Government 2.0 Club, an international platform for sharing knowledge about the intersection between technology and governance. And, in the spirit of openness and transparency, he is an avid mindcaster on Twitter.

1 Response

  1. Nahum Gershon

    Thanks for bringing this distinction between mere conversations and relationships. Good point! I also wonder is there is a continuum of human relationships where interchange of short bursts of text are on the low side (not the lowest point though) of the human-interaction spectrum and real intimate relationships are on the high side. This does not mean that the continuum is a linear line- it could be or it is a multi-dimensional space. Of course, humans can interact not just with humans but also with organizations or with objects (e.g., with a music player or a phone), but the strongest ties are normally between humans (as you point out relationships are better than mere conversations on social media).

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