Nice post – we sent out copies of Tribes to our clients for Christmas – I thought it had a lot of strong points.

Now, for this whole social media thing, I think that the internet (+applications and devices) has enabled people to find each other (their tribes) across the boundaries of time and space.

It is about human connection and about being human. All the web applications and devices just enable it.

Huge challenge for marketers in any event.

Tom O’Brien

Still, I’m more focused on examples like Lisa P Maxwell which trade pre-recorded slick avatars for real live people. Yes webcams and chat have been around for some time, yet we haven’t seen them used exactly this way until recently, and my instincts tell me that we’ll see more of this type of thing in business applications.

Back to your point about why people glamorize this as something else–don’t we all want something to believe in?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdeGeo2nuN8

You said, “I am making an observation. Which is that people are craving live contact and technology is evolving into something that can actually begin to support that, which brings us closer to how some things were.”

That is certainly true. Let’s remember that a big part of people running to the internet wasn’t only for access to loads more information but a mix of things really, including the sense of safety, real or imagined, of socializing in relative anonymity.

People GOT their contact.

The only thing that seems to have changed much is that now people feel more exhilarated by their ability to converse with, and/or effect (real or imagined), business entities via the power of membership in social networks.

What we begin to notice, if we look a little more closely, is that, yes, people are STILL craving connectivity and interaction but, if it appears to have intensified, it’s only because they’re becoming addicted to the chase.

And the reason they become increasingly addicted to the chase is because, again, it seems, the large majority are not willing to give up the aforementioned anonymity.

The individuals who do, though, become group network leaders because the followers are attracted by the wish that they could be so confident and secure. Thus, the mad irony is that instead of us being “all tribal”, we actually end up more easily and efficiently funneled into a barrel.

One who was formerly “our own” has evolved to the point where we trust the part of them that still looks like us, enough to let them steer us into the sights of companies/marketers who reward them handsomely to do so.

In some circles, this is known as the psychological/cosmic food chain – and, imagination aside, it’s a fact of existence.

So, Seth sells us on the alluring concept of increased connectivity and interaction via tribes and because we crave the chase, he neatly funnels us into venues where our presence/hides put food on his table.

So, why would you guess people glamorize all of this as something else?