Broadcasting instead of socializing

When social networks showed up we thought they would mirror one on one our offline relationships. This is – obviously and fortunately – totally impossible, and scientific data is starting to prove the point. Social networks are not really about socialization, more about broadcasting.

[...] people who are members of online social networks are not so much “networking” as they are “broadcasting their lives to an outer tier of acquaintances who aren’t necessarily inside the Dunbar circle,” says Lee Rainie, the director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a polling organisation. Humans may be advertising themselves more efficiently. But they still have the same small circles of intimacy as ever.

Link (thx Bruno)