By now we all know that the U.S. ranking in Plaxo’s Connected Index was even worse than our showing in the World Cup. In fact we lag behind countries with weaker internet infrastructure and penetration. Some of you may be surprised, but I’m not.
That some cultures value social connectedness more than others is not a new idea and has been widely written about. The claim is that cultures fall into two categories.
● Independent cultures: Those that follow a more independent cultural norm, where members value independence above social relationships,
● Collectivist cultures: Those obeying a collectivist cultural norm, in which people exhibit a more interdependent mode of existence.
Anglo Saxon countries (therefore us) are said to belong to the former group, while Asian and Latin cultures belong to the latter.
These “Cultures of Connectedness” (my term) rely on many layers of social relationships where business, family, friends and social contacts are equally important. The term guanxi, here in Romanized form, attempts to describe the importance of social networks in the Chinese culture, which is definitely a culture of connectedness. But beyond the practical benefits that strong social networks may provide, in cultures of connectedness people just like…being connected.
This is highlighted in a recent blog post on the Connected Index describing the experience of a U.S. immigrant in Argentina who feels very much….connected.
So it’s no wonder several of these countries appear at the top of our Index, including the administrative region of Hong Kong, whose Connected Index is second only to Argentina with an average of 390 contacts per address book. It’s easy to see why: Hong Kong has guanxi, strong internet penetration and a high level of comfort with English -- about 1/3 of the population is fluent in English and 2/3 understands it. But in many of the other countries in our top 20 people are not as comfortable with an English UI and internet penetration, while growing, still has a long way to go to reach U.S levels. The one thing these people have in common is the importance of feeling connected.
I agree with John that the real measure of connectedness is not one’s six-degrees-of-separation network or the quality of one’s broadband connection, but the size of one’s address book. Those are the people we have direct access to, not through friends or friends of friends. If that’s true then we can extrapolate the Connected Index to measure individual levels of connectedness, which I did by comparing my own address book to the Index. I’m sad to report that my numbers are even lower than the national average. My immediate reaction was to mentally go through the list of people I have met recently looking for possible contacts to add. I guess this not only shows I’m unconnected but definitely competitive!
What about you? How connected are you?
-Regina Bustamante, Director, Globalization
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Comments
I agree. I'd love to see a general "map" of my contacts and where i fit in within that map, sort of like a Facebook-Outlook hybrid, so I can see all my Plaxo-ed contact's calendars, address books and tasks - all with the easy and familiar Plaxo interface, I love it.
While I agree with your comments about some cultures being more about connectedness (collectivist), I still stand by my comments from yesterday that the sample for the Connected Index is not the same from non-English countries as it is in English-speaking countries.
That is to say that individuals who overcome the obstacles of an English UI to make Plaxo work for them are probably the people who most NEED Plaxo, so they are bound to have bigger address books. It would be interesting to add an additional correlating factor to the Connected Index, such as what percent of the population uses Plaxo, maybe limit that number just to Internet users, in those countries. I think the results would be quite different if you factor this in, as larger percentages of Internet users will use Plaxo casually (not as much of a necessity with a smaller address book) in English speaking countries. Larger numbers of what I call casual users in English speaking countries drag down their score in the Connected Index.
Keep up the great work, Plaxo! ;)