Social Networking is Hard

By this summer, we will (hopefully) see truly decentralized social networking. The challenges will be formidable.

Social networking introduces a surplus of sense into society, for which we are currently unprepared. Some examples:

• What does it mean to "like" a horrible news story?
• Do I really want to follow updates by my boss?
• Will my boss be offended if I don't follow his updates?
• etc ad infinitum
  

Basically, we're at a juncture in human communication, and we don't have answers to most of the questions raised. And we shouldn't expect to have them.

Rather, making sense of all the surplus sense produced by social networking will probably take generations.