-
Follow vs. Friend
Our online world was dominated by mutual connections before Twitter came around. Friendster, MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn have all operated under this model:
- Person A invites person B to connect
- Person B gets an email, clicks the link, then clicks accept
- Person A and B are now connected to each other
Twitter flipped this on its head and allowed you to connect to someone without them connecting to you - better known as “following” someone.
On Facebook, you connect with who you know. On Twitter, you connect with who you want to know.
Some thoughts
Connections on Facebook seem to be much more meaningful and useful when you think of it from a psychological perspective. Friends are much more meaningful to an individual on a personal level - they are people you have actually met. From a graphical perspective, friend-based networks form a web, where follower-based networks form a hierarchy. One is a popularity contest, where there other is simply a network.
