Clive Thompson on Real-World Social Networks vs. Facebook 'Friends'

The article "Clive Thompson on Real-World Social Networks vs. Facebook 'Friends'" is an interesting read. Often when I hear about "Social Networks" I immediately think about the virtual world and not the real world we live in. I wholeheartedly agree with the premise of the article that it's important to improve real world communications through interaction data gathering. It's about time research focuses on real world social networking in the workplace which will hopefully lead to greater efficiency.

I believe as a society we've become so enthralled with online social media and examining it's impact we've forgotten about our real world interactions. We need to be aware that everything we do is social and that a lot depends on how well we communicate with each other outside of the virtual world. I sincerely hope research studies like the one M.I.T. is conducting continues not only in businesses, but in other areas such as health care and improving transportation. The following article in BusinessWeek describes some more "reality mining" benefits.