When Does Social Networking Become Absurd? Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, Classmates.com…the Native Society? Not sure if you’ve seen this thing, but the Native Society is a social network for native New Yorkers with upper-crust pedigrees who went to private schools. (Not kidding.) Actually, let’s wait a sec for the Native Society. Facebook was originally exclusive to students of Ivy League schools. It’s still exclusive in that you choose your friends, but the site is now open to anyone with an email address. Now it looks like other sites are trying to recapture the exclusivity Facebook has left behind… According to Financial News Online, Citigroup’s private banking unit is planning a social networking site for the 15- to 22-year-old children of its wealthiest private clients (again, not kidding). The bank already runs a website with partner Tile Financial called Spend Grow Give (www.spendgrowgive.com), which they bill as an online financial tool for the same group of ultra-wealthy kids of clients. The site supposedly helps these kids track their spending, investments and charitable donations. It also assesses and ranks their risk tolerances, gives them labels like “cautious mover” or “rabble rouser” and ranks them with their peers (so they can know how many other rabble rousers are out there). Talk about exclusivity…according to Financial News, these are kids with at least $25 million to invest. Peter Gaudry, vice president and business development officer for Citi Private Bank, said in the Financial News article that the new website won’t necessarily be a social network for the kids but will “reinforce friendships they’ve built from other platforms.” (Isn’t that a social network?) Gaudry also said the site isn’t about business, it’s about forging relationships. But then he went on to say of the site that “your future clients are already there whether you’re there or not.” (Doesn’t that sound like business?) Now, for the Native Society (www.thenativesociety.com)...
(We purposely waited to give you the URL so you wouldn’t jump away. You definitely want to take a peak afterwards.) Although the founders originally intended it exclusively for native New Yorkers who went to private schools, they now accept non-native New Yorkers too (honorary members), just as long as they’re of the correct breed—New Yorkers who have adopted certain “attitudes and sensibilities.” These attitudes and sensibilities are, according to founder Oliver Estreich in New York Magazine, “an understanding of culture, cars, fashion, people. It’s kind of like: a mentality.” To join, a club administrator has to invite you, and you have to pass an evaluation. Estreich (who still lives with his parents, by the way) said it’s really hard to get into the network, but you don’t have to be rich and the network is broadening its horizons. Still, you have to pass Estreich’s personal litmus test because he’s the one who decides who gets in or not. “It’s a lot of power for one person,” he said. (Insert your own comment here.) So, anyway, where is all this going? Patent agent Mark Nowotarski, president of Market, Patents & Alliances, says that social networking is one of the fastest growing areas for patents in the country. According to Nowotarski, the U.S. patent office received over 1,200 social networking patent applications in 2010. By comparison, there were almost none in 2003. On the Internet, you can find websites dedicated to every imaginable subculture on the planet. Are social networks following? Will it get to the point where there’ll be social networks with only a couple hundred members (versus 500 million for Facebook)? Oh, wait. The Native Society only has about 170 members. Maybe we’re there already. (Well, good thing they have a Facebook account—they can get some new friends…not members necessarily…but friends.)