On distaste for serial ‘networkers’.
Traditional face-to-face networking can be fairly accurately described as “the cultivation of weak social ties for either personal or professional objectives”, or more colloquially as “looking for people who might be useful”.
People who go to events only to network, generally suck.
I realized recently why I have a problem with this: the technology I work with every day makes cultivating weak social ties in person something of an affront to my values.
Social networks are first and foremost useful for reinforcing and maintaining existing social ties. Secondarily, they are stunningly effective at building weak ties based on industry, professional interests, or skill set. The kind of networking that is done in person has, to an extent, been made obsolete in my life by integrating social media into my day to day interactions.
The reason this is a problem is simple: when I commit to maintaining and cultivating weak ties online as part of my day to day routine, it starts to bother me when someone attempts to form a social tie, based entirely on perceived benefit, in my somewhat limited face-to-face interaction time.
If my time on the Internet isn’t going to be focused entirely on interacting with friends, it bothers me when someone tries to make my in person social time about helping them achieve a business objective.
The best advice regarding networking is not to network; make friends. And when I see the pursuit of weak social ties invading what I consider time with friends, I can get hostile, whether visibly or subtly.
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