Networking... netplaying: From a New York minute to a Mixi second

Abstract

All of us are part of networks. Our immediate and extended families, our neighborhoods, our circles of friends, and the clubs or churches that some of us belong to are all considered networks of the human sort. It’s odd that we so naturally refer to communication among these groups as “networking,” since, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the use of this term began in about 1967 in reference to “the action or process of networking a number of computers.” Only about a decade later–just as I was graduating from high school–did the term come to refer to “the … process of making use of a network of people for the exchange of information.” The readiness and frequency that this term glides off our tongues belies its recent coinage.