Are connections the new money?

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Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In, etc.... It seems that nowadays you're more valuable the more connections you can show to have. Not friends, not people you share anything with, just connections in key places. Yes, it was always considered a sign of status, but nowadays it's as if it's the only thing that's valued about a person. A lot more extreme ever since the financial crisis and the fact that money is not to be trusted as much as it used to.

If my theory is right, no wonder we Aspies are having a harder time than anytime in history. I invite you also to the very interesting thread: Link to "Were we the artisans of old?"

Connections were the old money too. It just gets downplayed in history books for reasons both sinister (Don't want to publicize that a family's wealth came from having a friend in government) and inane (Don't realize how much their casual connections mattered, and really believe that "they did it all with blood sweat and tears.")

That's true, I know. But nowadays you practically can't work if you don't look like someone who makes connections easily and suitably. And all these websites that are specifically geared to showing others how many connections you have in the right places... Plus, I see it all around me that nowadays people don't even bother to try and behave minimally decently to someone who wouldn't add to them any status by appearing on their (say, Facebook) list of contacts.

Connections aren't the new money, but you do need connections to be able to make money. Every job I've ever had I only was able to get because I knew the right people at the right time, even for this one crappy retail job I had for a few months. Everything I applied for jobs the old fashioned way, by sending out my resume and filling out applications, I was lucky to even get an interview.

That's how it used to be, I know. But nowadays it seems it's INSTEAD OF money.

Yes and no. The short answer is no.
Mostly, it's just the latest scam. It's a way for the managers of the network to make money.
There are no jobs. That's the bottom line. Everything else is a scam.
We had the age of the hunter gathers, we had the agrarian age, we had the industrial age, and now that the machines are doing all the real work, we are living in the Age of BS.

No, you're not going to get an actual job out of these scams.
If you can trick yourself into believing that it can lead to something, it will give you hope, which is worth something. It's a pathetic, false hope, but if you're smart enough to trick yourself into believing it, it'll make you feel better. The new opium of the masses.

People nowadays are frantic about hoarding connections, same as they were frantic about hoarding money till not long ago.

People who CAN SHOW that they have a lot of interestingly-placed connections, are nowadays the "popular", the "cool", the "followed leaders", the "life of the party", the powerful in the group - same as those with a rare talent, character, brain or skill were in the past.

Online connecting applications are used as a means to show people how many interestingly-located connections you have.

Connectivity topic

Are you talking about "It is not what you know, but who you know", Greentea?

I guess connections can be a form of currency, but no one wants to trade connections unless it is for a job. My son used a connection with a neighbour to get his current p/t job, one he has had for 3 years, but he still had to prove himself to keep it.

And seems that, nowadays, to keep that job, what you need is to show that you're good at connections.

I don't think connections are replacing money, but I do think there has always been a symbiotic relationship between the two commodities. Getting a job, in most situations has always been about connections - how many you have, and how well-developed your social skills at developing new ones.

Online networking does give people a vanity showcase in which to display their collections of associations, but I certainly hope any employer would be smart enough to realize that just because there's a link on your myspace or facebook page to a specific individual, it doesn't mean you're BFFs - only that you've met them and/or are associated by a mutal aquaintance. I have facebook 'friends' that I knew only vaguely thirty years ago who requested the link from me because they happened to remember my name from their high school yearbook, and links to relatives I'm not sure I've ever actually met - and one to one of the (now) grand high pooh-bah mucky mucks at the Associated Press, whom I worked with briefly in 1976 at a hole-in-the-road radio station, when he was almost as green as I was. I respect the man, but I'd be lying if I pretended we actually have a 'relationship' of any kind.

But, yes, there does seem to be a status associated with the quantity, rather than the quality of one's social connections, even if they are separated from oneself by the full six degrees. My 16 yo daughter has over a thousand facebook friends and I'm absolutely certain that in RL she's never actually met the vast majority of them.

Connections are not meant to be relationships, however. Nobody expects or assumes that you know your connections at any level of closeness at all, or that you've ever met them. Connections have a very concrete, narrow definition, they have nothing to do with relationship or with knowing a person.

For someone to be a connection of yours, the necessary and sufficient condition that they need to fulfill is that you can turn to them with a question and they won't ignore the question thinking why on earth is this guy writing to me, I never heard of him, maybe it's a mistake, maybe it's a whako.

Eg: if you don't know where a certain street is in a certain neighborhood and can't find it on the map, you can email one of those relatives you never met (who happens to live in that neighborhood) and they'll answer you. Then when people tell you: "Hey Willard, you're a genius, you were the only one who found that street!" you're supposed to answer "Well, I have my connections in the right places." and that earns you a better place in the group.

Connections is about mutual services. In a world where money is becoming hard to get and huge networks of connections are easily and quickly kept and databased because of the internet and web applications, connections seem to be replacing the cruciality of money as the top asset to have.

It feeds on itself - the more connections you have, the more you'll advance in life, and the more you'll be able to do little favors to others (that will be big favors for them), so the more people will want to be your connection. In turn, someone with a lot of connections (provable via the internet applications), is an attractive connection, so you get even more connections.

Yes, connections as an asset is nothing new. But nowadays it's become a central, all-encompassing activity, due to the possibility to manage connections on a gigantic scale (1000 connections for a 16-year old should give you a hint that we're seeing a new world here). Nobody would spend their lives hoarding and managing such a gigantic collection if the object collected weren't more crucial (or at least as crucial) than money.

An example from a well-connected ring I was lucky to benefit from (to show that you're not even supposed to know your connections): I wanted to get out of my marriage fast. Someone helped me and I got a divorce in record time. Did I know the person who helped me? Not at all. Did they know someone I know? NO. They knew a certain woman just well enough to give an immediate appointment to a stranger coming sent by her, this woman owed a favor or two to my sister, and my sister had a personal interest in me getting divorced in record time. The only person I knew was my sister. Now these internet applications make the whole process much faster and effective. Nowadays, I wouldn't even need to mention the issue to my sister. I'd go to the website, see who her contacts are, see who their contacts are and contact the one relevant to my getting a divorce fast.

I think online connections are overrated. I'm on LinkedIn and Facebook. I got a contract through LI. It was nice and I got to meet my customer on a trip. FB has been helpful in reconnecting to people I know and for building my political network, as it were. Still, they're not a replacement for friendship. Contacts can lead to friendship. Nobody on FB whom I didn't already know has asked me for anything. The one person who asked was in the context of a joint venture, I think. I have to prod her to respond. I used to participate in LI's questions and answers, but it took a lot of time for little return. I did post one question for which I received useful replies. Still, I know few of these people personally. Few know me well enough to recommend jobs for me.

I happen to know some political heavy hitters. One tried to help me but couldn't provide any useful leads and was apologetic about it.

I could never join facebook. Its not that I am against it, but I could never keep up with the multiple interactions on it, I would become overloaded, visually, mentally, and probably become addicted. That is why I like wrongplanet, I can spend as much, or little time as I like on it, leave for weeks or months at a time, and choose what threads I write in.

i am not on face book or twitter or myspace.


I got recommended for my current job because my sisters english teacher is married to the head of the department. but I had to work hard to keep the job. (which i have had for 5 years so far)

Connections can be helpful. I received a job interview because a friend of mine had a friend who worked at the place I applied. However, that wouldn't have mattered if I weren't also qualified (via education and experience) for the job.

So, in essence, he pushed my resume to the top of the pile. If I bomb the second interview (which happens this week), then my connections won't matter; but, if I'm successful they'll have played a part in that success.

I bloody hope not! Getting work when i'm out of school seems like it would be hard enough with interviews, having to actually know other people will just make it harder.
Oh well, there is still the option of working for myself, which seems the best at the moment.