Video by @matto
This is my first attempt at writing anything since attending the SXSW conference for the first time—it was quite an experience, from the panels to the parties to the conversations in the hallways, cafes and sidewalks. I spoke on a couple of panels but there was something really special about the “Friendship is Dead” salon that friend Russ Unger and myself “moderated”.  I use the term loosely because it felt like a casual conversation more than anything else. Some even joked around about it feeling like “therapy”.

We started off the panel with the premise of friendship in the basic sense and quickly moved into social media territory. It became clear that few people in the room felt that there is a need for social applications to offer better controls around how we can classify “friends”—from those who we may have met online, to the ones we work with to the ones we’ve known from childhood that may ore may not be close with anymore. The conversation quickly moved into a very organic space where many of us felt the need to express opinions on the subject, and were clearly wrestling with the notion of managing our relationships as they soar into higher and higher numbers. If you reference “Dunbar’s Number” (below), there is an assertion that once we exceed the number of relationships past “150″, that our relationships become less meaningful and more difficult to manage.

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