Social Networking for Depth, not Breadth

I am working on a half-baked theory about the future of social networking.  Thanks in advance for letting me discuss it here.  Some of it was inspired by conversations with my friend Tamin Pechet, so he should get some (if not most) of the credit.

My wife is a very social person.  When she was in Business School, she was able to get to know tons of people, and manage a very broad yet enriching social network.  She does have close friends, but is also comfortable managing many relationships at the same time.

I am a little more introverted than my wife.  I've always preferred to have a core group of friends that I know really well and are my "home base" if you will.  Traditional social networks like Facebook and MySpace are great for me because I get to stay connected with lots of people with relatively little effort.  It's great to know what my old classmates from highschool  are up to or catch up with friends I've lost touch with over the years.

But, my assumption is that there are a lot of people like me who want to deepen some of their core relationships.  Current social networks are great at helping to cast the net wide, but how about helping me get to the next level with a good friend, or maintain a close relationship with one that lives across the world?

What tools would you build if the primary goal of a social network were to deepen existing relationships? How would the whole communication paradigm look like?  Does Facebook and MySpace satisfy this?  I honestly don't know. But I think there is some demand for this that is not met by the kinds of closed networks that exist today (Xanga is the main one that comes to mind). 

I have a hunch that there is a company out there that could compete with Facebook and MySpace for this unserved need. Would love to find it!

Comments

[Hannah]

check this article out:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1668441,00.html

[Robert Go]

Thanks Hannah, great article. The idea of a more closed social network is almost heresy in the Web 2.0 scene. But there is an unmet need in the market out there.