On the popular social networking sites we have one category: friend.  But what are the other categories of “friends” that we use in real life. How do we categorize the people that we have in our lives?  

  1. Family
    1. Parent
    2. Sibling
    3. Cousins
    4. Aunts/Uncles
    5. Step
    6. Half
    7. Adopted
  2. Partner
    1. boyfriend/girlfriend
    2. Companion
    3. ex
  3. Friend
    1. Best friend
    2. Close friend
    3. Friend of a friend
    4. Acquaintance
  4. Business
    1. Contact
    2. Associate
    3. Boss
    4. Colleague
  5. People in my environment
    1. Guy in the lobby of my building, cleaning lady, deli store owner etc., regulars at my Starbucks
  6. Enemies
    1. People that I dislike
    2. Jerk
    3. Asshole

Then there are people who fall into multiple categories e.g there’s the business acquaintance, there’s the rich divorced mother (4kids) that is a potential partner, or a good lay, and/or a potential friend.  Now there’s a new category for you.

Social networks will eventually allow us to categorize the people in our networks in the same way that we do in real life, and by holding it up as a mirror allow us to consciously evaluate the value of our networks.

Don’t forget my thing is about people living their lives as a practice, i.e. consciously designing what you want in your life and inventing the practices/projects that get you there. One such practice is creating networks of help that support you in having the life you’re designing. By allowing you to visibly look at the networks of people you have in your life, you’ll be able to evaluate them and take appropriate action (more on how to recategorize people in your networks in another post).

 This will be allowed on my morevida.com.