I have recently made friends with John McCain, Sarah Palin and Stephen Fry - none of this reflects my political persuasion or sexual orientation but rather shows how pervasive, democratic ('scuse the pun) and voyeuristic social networking has made society - it is fascinating seeing that 30 people have recommended John and only 1 (that is one)- who incidentally is John McCain, has recommended the lipstick'd pitbull AND I know that Stephen (first name terms now we are "friends") is currently filming in Africa and loves F1 and Lewis Hamilton (via Twitter). This anecdotally backed up some research I read last week from TNS, TRU & Marketing Evolution called "Never ending friending" which shows how social networking has caused a quantum change in how we interact – with each other, with bands and brands, and with the entire media landscape. Perhaps most importantly it also details a
set of best practices that will govern behaviour in this new world - this should help me understand how I interact with my new found friends - I am just waiting for Obama, Hilary and the original "6 degrees guy" Kevin Bacon to accept my "friendship"