I am fortunate enough to come from a long line of successful entrepreneurs. Most notably, my grandfather who is a pioneer in the trade show business and one of the founding partners of COMDEX, the world’s first ever premier computer trade show.

I mention this because from the time I was born until now I have gone to just about any type of event imaginable. Why am I telling you this? It’s because not once did I see anyone at any of these events whip out their iPhone4 to make a Tweet. Not once did I hear the phrase, “Facebook Me.” And not once did I ever hear, “let’s connect on LinkedIn.” More importantly, I certainly never heard anyone brag about how many friends, fans, or followers they have. They simply knew each other’s wives names, backgrounds and major life events.

Being by my grandfather’s side for all these years and seeing first-hand the level of knowledge everyone possesses about one another got me thinking: What if social networking crashed? Think about it for a moment before reading on. Would you still be able to remember everyone’s birthday? What happens if you forgot your friend’s wife’s or husband’s name? Do you actually know even half of the phone numbers saved in your phone? If Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter died how in the world would you be able to stay connected or keep up with what everyone’s doing? The answer is simple – we would actually have to work harder at remembering things. For some of us that might even mean taking notes – ON PAPER! Yes generation-x, as scary as this may sound it is possible to live in a world without online social networking sites.

Can we define Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others true social networking?

Now that I have you thinking about a world without online networking let’s explore the true intent of this post. Can we actually call sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, “social networking?” Or, are they just product tools that help us obtain the information we need for in-person interaction? Let’s use the Facebook event page as an example. An event organizer sets up an event on Facebook and invites their friends to RSVP. This provides everyone with insight on who’s attending the event. More importantly, it allows individuals to research one another before they attend the actual event.

The point I am trying to make here is that we have the luxury on calling upon Facebook when we need to obtain information – in this case people attending an event. Can we truly consider that social networking? What about the Facebook “Wall” or “Chat” features? Technically they are forms of communication, which is a core principle of “social networking.” Take a look at the posts on your wall or even your friend’s wall. Can we really consider a ‘like’ on a post or a quick comment in a ‘wall’ true social networking? Listen, I don’t have the answers to these questions. I am just tossing it out there as something for everyone to think about.
Recently, I did an in-depth analysis of my own social networking profiles. I wanted to see just how many people out of the 2,000 plus (Facebok + LinkedIn + Twitter) I actually conversed with in-person on a daily basis. When I did the math the exact calculation came to 0.010 percent (roughly 21 people). This is a pretty shocking number isn’t it? And for those of you who know me I am a pretty social guy. I hear so many people out there brag about the number of Twitter followers they have. I would hypothesize the larger the number of followers on Twitter an individual has the lower their percent of daily interaction amongst their followers will be. Kind of counter intuitive for a platform we consider to be social-networking right?

The point of this post is not to bash social networking – because I truly love it. It’s to raise an argument on how we define these so-called, “social networking” sites. Are they robust product tools that allow us to call upon information to enhance the true social experience, which is offline? Or are they platforms that foster a true enriched social networking experience in the place we call the Internet? Again, I don’t have the answers to these questions but my grandfather does. He states, “ You can’t ever replace the true value of human interaction and the importance of a handshake.”