How Big a Village Does it Take?

What if you never lost touch with anyone you ever knew? If you are anywhere near my age (which is incredibly old, bordering on ancient, according to at least 2 of my kids), think about it. How many thousands of people have you known throughout your life? From relatives, elementary school, camp, middle and high school, college, dating, working?

It's gotta be in the thousands. If you were to go back even 3 or 4 years ago, how many of them had you truly kept in touch with? A handful? Maybe a couple more that you would bump into a couple of times a year? Maybe you Googled someone just to see if you could find them, and then maybe even sent them an email to say hello, and maybe they sent one back, and that was pretty much the end of the conversation. Maybe.

But again, how much richer would your life be, if almost everyone you ever knew, or went to school with, or worked with, was still in your life? Just keeping track of them all, finding out when they have relationships, marriages, children, jobs. What problem could you not solve, if you had those thousands of people who would be willing to help you, just as you would be willing to help them out? It almost takes one back to when we all lived in villages, everyone knew everyone's problems, and everyone helped everyone.

I know that recently, my life has been made richer, just by using Facebook. Through Facebook, people that I went to high school and college with, that I worked with oh so many years ago when I was first starting out my career, we have reconnected, all the way back to some from my elementary school. Not all of them, mind you, but a much larger handful than I had kept in touch with. And it's pretty amazing, actually. When something happens in my life, simply by changing my status, I get messages of support, offers for help, comments about the 'olden days,' jokes, all kinds of things.

Need a roofer - just change your status in Facebook, and someone will surely know someone who can help you out.

Social scientists (yes, that is an actual occupation) even have a name for all of this: ambient awareness. (Great, thought provoking article)

And the changes in society based on this are already being felt, in subtle, yet dramatic ways. For example, it used to be that if you were looking for a job, you would find a connection to the most senior person you could at a company, and get an introduction. But nowadays, the goal is to find someone in your extended network at a lower level at a company, and have them pass your information up. It's a fundamental shift from the baby boomer generation to Generations X, Y, and Z. (This is exactly how I found my current position, btw, but more about that in another post).

So, when I look at my kids, who will all grow up 100% wired, probably keeping in touch with almost everyone they know during their lives, I wonder how big their village will actually be.