On Facebook I have “friends”. On Twitter, I “follow” people and am “followed”. These are examples of classless societies.

But they don’t mirror the real world.

As much as many cultures have tried to eliminate social castes, classes, if you will, at a societal level, the fact is that within the realm of people you know and communicate with on a regular basis, a caste system is firmly in place and not likely to disappear any time soon.

Your best friend. A close friend. A friend. An acquaintance. Your immediate family. Your extended family. People you work with every day. People you meet often in your work. People you know at work. People you went to school with. People you know from your club. People you talk to on public transport. People you’ve met online. There are a myriad different relationships that bind you to the people you ‘know’.

Take Facebook as an example. Would you ‘friend’ your best friend? Of course. You most likely share a lot of social discourse in person and through other media like the telephone, email, instant messaging etc. What about that person you know at work, but who you never see outside of work? You talk often, but usually about work. Maybe politics or the weather. Would you ‘friend’ them? Maybe. What about that person you went to school with who you bump into on the street occasionally and say hello to, but otherwise don’t see? Probably not.

Facebook gives you only two choices: 1) You are my ‘friend’. 2) I don’t want to be associated with you.

Moving on to Twitter, I currently follow 53 people/organisations. I read every single tweet from those people. That’s why I follow them – because I am interested in what they have to say. Others will follow anyone they come across and cannot possibly hope to see even a small fraction of their tweets. Why do they follow like this? I assume because they are happy to be associated with these people.

This is why I think both of these social networks need to introduce castes. On Facebook, I want to ‘friend’ people I will actually interact with on a frequent basis. At the same time, I have no issues showing my association with others who I will generally not communicate with. On Twitter, I am happy once again to associate with a much larger number of people than I will actually read the tweets from.

Granted, Twitter does offer lists now which can allow me to operate in this fashion. But it doesn’t make it clear to those being ‘followed’ (but not really) that my desired relationship is different. Or perhaps more importantly the other way around – that I am really following you because I find you interesting and not just because I follow everyone I ever come across.

What do you think?