This is presented at Mendaki Youth Symposium 2012. The premise for the symposium is this - "Socialising in Social Media" - negotiating diminishing presence of society in social media Social network - social bonding or social dystrophy? is social network the new trend to communicate and will always be? Will it become more prevalent and gain dominance over face to face interaction in the future? Show Notes: Slide 1 Introduction - hisham mhisham.org @mhisham Slide 2 An association between two or more people that may range from fleeting to enduring. In our present day context, it can online as well as offline. People in a relationship tend to influence each other, share their thoughts and feelings, and engage in activities together. Because of this interdependence, most things that change or impact one member of the relationship will have some level of impact on the other member Slide 3 What are the tools of the online world that can affect relationships? The common ones are Facebook, Youtube and Twitter. Each have the capability and capacity to affect how we view relationship. On most levels, Youtube affects the least when it comes to affecting relationships, but Youtube is popular because now everyone can create their own videos and become stars of their own channel! On Twitter, the relationship dwells on how big your network of friends are. The larger the connection the harder it is for your to keep track of tweets. And if you ever want to keep track on all of them, you wil have to be on that twitter client 24/7. How does this affect your offline relations? And by the same token, Facebook. Depending on how big your circle of friends are, how you keep up with each other - and respond to whatever they are sharing, will affect how you feel, respond, react. Slide 4 Combining all the social tools together, we call it social media. How social is it really? How do you determine if this will define your social life, be it online or offline? slide 5 There will be more apps that presumes to let you take charge of your life. Little apps that provide exclusive services. Foursquare. Pinterest. Instagram. Path. Of course, they allow their own sharing, if you turn them on - which they are counting on you to do so. Especially for Path. Will you be happy sharing something with 150 friends or your 5000 friends on Facebook? Slide 6 Social media and online relationship is a conscious act. It is all about active curation. And when you are done with it, I hope you click on the X on the browser and go out to really meet your friends. The LIKE button can never replace a freshly brewed cup of double shot espresso.