If I were to walk up to you and ask, “Who do you know,” how would you answer? Would you even be confident that you understood what I was asking? With the increasing overlap between the “real” and “online” worlds, that open-ended question has become much more difficult to answer today than in years past.

In the very old days it was easy to answer – you either knew someone or you didn’t. If you were a peasant, you never talked directly to a nobleman. Everyone had their own little sphere of contacts, and the world was a simple place.

Now in the old days (and here I mean around 1990), it got a little more complicated. In addition to the people you knew personally, there were more communication options (letters, phone calls, faxes, emails, etc), which expanded your network but reduced relationship depth at the same time.

Today it gets even more difficult when on top of all this you pile on all the different social networking sites, plus forums, blogs, video sites, etc. Most young people today have hundreds, if not thousands, of contacts in what I’m going to call their “loose network.”

Before anyone (this means you, dad) starts complaining about how this makes the world a more shallow place, and things were much better before the internet was invented, let me restate a lesson I keep learning: you can’t always control your situation, but you can always control how you choose to respond.

I’m a web developer, and I’m also very interested in leaving this world a better place than I found it. I believe that those two worlds are best able to converge in social media, so that’s where I’m looking for my opportunity.

ItStartsWith.Us is not going to remain a simple blog for very long. This is just Phase I of my Change the World project – the “show” portion. Phase II will be the “do” portion, where I actually build something that will help all of us contribute better, faster, and on a global scale.

I’ve only been blogging for about six weeks now, and I’m amazed and humbled by the interactions and conversations that I’ve already had with people. I’m going to continue building a community around this theme, and when it’s big enough, launch Phase II, which I’ll hopefully begin working on this winter.

I’ll give a more detailed explanation of my social media thoughts, and also a high-level summary of Phase II in my next post.

Similar Posts:

• Who Do You Know? (Part II)
• Join the Love Bomb Team. NOW.
• Social Media For Good: 12for12k
• Surprised By Joy: My Introduction To The Service Industry (Part I)
• The Top 10 Non-Profit SXSW Panels (2011)