Social Networking on Ice
One of the more interesting social networks I have been involved with is various hockey teams. When I was in college we went through a rather grueling two-month training period to determine who would make the team for the winter season. I was fortunate enough to have made the team. The way we were told of the decision was our name would be on a locker during the last day of training camp.
The name on my locker was “Spence.” My coach did not know my real name! He had to ask me so they could print the program for the upcoming games. The other players on the team all had their own “team” names: “Moose,” “Sparky,” “Mole,” “Mud,” “Scooter,” “Sticker,” “Blade,” etc. It was the persona we each adopted within our social network.
Years later when I played “beer league” hockey, we had a social network that would have only existed in the context of creating a team. The team had some corporate types like myself, blue- collar construction workers, several criminal defense lawyers, and many of their clients! This was a collection of 18 guys that would never network together in “real life.” Like my college team, we only knew each other by our team nicknames. We played together for almost 15 years and won 12 championships.
The years we lost were when some players violated probation! After each season we invited our wives or girlfriends to an end of year dinner. This dinner was always an interesting exercise in social networking. As you can imagine, the female companions of the team members had about as much in common as the players, but easily bonded around the topic of men chasing a small frozen piece of rubber around cold, damp arenas. My wife always got frustrated when I would introduce her to the other players. The reason was simple – I did not know their real names!! It was always, “Hi, Dear, this is 'Stinky'; 'Stinky,' this is my wife" and “Dear, this is bone-crusher ...." and she would reply, “Hi, Mr. Crusher!” This group was very tight in the context of ice hockey, but once the season ended, so did our association. No context equals no social networking. That is the lesson I learned.
Many of today’s social networks have an explicit (such as LinkedIn) or implicit (Facebook) networking context. With a context that is understood by its members, a social network has longevity. If you remove that context, the network will cease to exist. If a network forms (like my earlier comments about CB radio) around a weak context, then the fade will become big, then die.
My hockey network had context that bonded the group. When the context was removed, that social network became a collection of nice memories, and a few trophies.
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