With all the talk of “social” in the web today, I started getting really tired of the references to social networking or social media and so on. After all, isn’t networking social by its very nature? What I eventually came to recognize though is that all these tools online are just another means to extend and empower us in life. Whether for our personal or professional lives, the way we’ve adapted these tools and technologies is the important part. I’ve come to call these tools and the use of them the “social web” as it’s a culmination of the technologies and how we use them.

So past all the great site and service ideas, there is actual real-life functionality. That’s what we’re looking for in most of this, simply some way to connect easier, or communicate faster, or share ideas with more information and context. Through our use of these web 2.0 technologies we like to lump together and call “social media” or “social networks” there is something more important to each of us: how we use it.

My question, then, is how do you use the social web? Is it for work? Is it for play? Is it to connect with friends & relatives? Is it to build your brand? Do you use it to speak for yourself or your company? What’s in your social web?

Photo credit: ecstaticist