Early in this blog, I wondered if people would withdraw from social networking when bad things happen to them, such as a layoff. I thought they would, to an extent, or at least maintain a veneer that things were fine when they were not.
Thankfully my supposition was wrong. BusinessWeek highlights the opposite. People are sharing their bad news en mas and using sites like Facebook as part of their support structure.
In a way, I'm not surprised. Social networking is about life and life is not always sunshine and butterflies. Sometimes life sucks. It's when life sucks that one gains the most out of social networking. These sites remind us that there are people out there – be they close friends and family or strangers – who empathize, share our experience and who care about us, in good times and in bad.
Interesting quote from the article: Typically people are loath to publicize bad news. 'When someone is initially laid off, their inclination is to avoid being in social environments,' says Marlin Potash, a NY psychiatrists who counsels workers exiting senior positions, primarily from the financial and media industries. But that behavior can heighten anxiety or worsen depression. Potash recommends that some clients use social networking sites because they provide a kind of 'halfway house' between comfort and social immersion.
This does lead me to an observation that has been lingering in my brain for a while. This recession will probably be the most documented downturns to date. Think of all of the data – from mainstream reporting, to Twitter feeds, to blogs etc – that is being captured and is readily available. Social scientists will have – and probably are having – a field day.
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