Circle Me Meta
Let’s talk meta. Specifically, Circleme - a new social media site that allows users to connect to themselves. From their site, “CircleMe is an inspiring social way to collect all your likes and find new ones,” or as most of us read it, “Another one? Really?”
If this fails it won't be because it's a terrible idea. Rather it's too soon, dealing with a problem not enough people have yet - the problem of keeping track of too many sites. CircleMe relies on a group of people asking the question, “How can I possibly keep track of the ten social networks I’m on?” and not immediately answering with, “I could get rid of eight of them.”
Instead they answer with, “I could create another network that keeps track of the ten others. That will surely simplify things.”
What scares me is where this trend is headed. Instead of wiping the slate clean with each new social network, as happened in the past, new ones start cropping on with higher and higher levels of abstraction.
- A social network that allows you to compare your connections on 10 platform.
- A network that compares the number of networks you have to the number others’ have.
- A network of networks networking networks.
- That last one didn’t sound real to me.
If CircleMe is a network based on the idea of connecting you to yourself, what’s next? A network connecting you to the networks that connect you to yourself? A way to connect to the networks of others connecting them to themselves? A network dedicated to disconnecting from the ones you actually know?
Anything’s possible, and if we’re going abstract with all of this, let’s go all the way. I want a series of networks that allows me to friend people based on how many social media sites they’re connected to, including the sites in the network itself. It’s the only practical way to objectively like people I never plan to want to know.
Perhaps the world isn’t ready for this yet. It’s too soon. But give it time. I have no doubt we’ll get there.