Has Social Networking Changed the Face of Your Friendships?

Is Social Networking Changing the Nature of Friendship? That's a good question... Though I never thought that I'd add new friends to my life when I began a blog, that soon changed. Is that your experience, too?

Since folks can pop in on delightful conversations with others around the globe, when it's convenient, Web 2.0 opens doors to new kinds of friendships. I enjoy the ability to meet and converse with people because it opens windows to worlds of ideas. Did you find that to be true as well? Consider this...

The brain is not challenged by conversations about the weather, and yet when folks are face to face where they work and socialize, the weather's often the main topic of conversation... The fact that the brain steps up to challenges and intellectual ideas draws people to deeper issues. Social networks open new windows to meaningful topics with those who share similar interests and professions. Here's some facts gleaned from recent research.

Findings on how social networking is changing the face of friendship are fascinating...

Online users have the same number of friends in real-life, but even more counterparts online

Myspace and Facebook is changing the number of friends people have

The average person has a social network of around 150 friends, ranging from close friends to casual acquaintances

90% of online friends rated as 'close' have met face to face

People choose friends in person and online based on their 'quality'... in person facial and bodily cues help, but online it's harder to spot dishonest signals

Social networks aid communication and may bring about a change in the size and structure of real-life social networks in the future

Here's just a few examples of professionals and others who network...

Maria Palma is likely to talk to Tom Vanderwell because they're interested in Customer Service.

Mike Wagner discusses branding with others in the field, Anna Farmery, Chris Brown, Drew McClellan, Martin Jelsema, Patrick Schaber, Cord Silverstein Jonathan Phillips, and many more...

Liz Strauss, Darren Rowse, Mike Sansone, Yaro Starak, Phil Gerbyshak, Rob Watts, Ben Yoskovitz, Dawud Miracle, MarkK and many other folks enjoy the art and science of blogging and share tools and strategies to exchange ideas and conversations that enhance our experiences

Some bloggers enjoy conversations and sharing their experiences and ideas. They never cease to amaze you with new thoughts and ventures... Bob Glaza, Terry Starbucker, Hsien Lei, Robert Hruzek, Chris Cree, and perhaps you...

I'll be adding more categories in the next couple of days...

And today's news adds another perspective to consider... Do pets fill the friendship niche for some folks?... number of pet owners is on the rise... There're more than 70 million pet owners in this country, and that's up over 7 percent, from just last year... So what does this say?

We'll keep track of where social networks online lead, but consider this...

Social networks change us and we change social networks!

Thoughts...