• by Seana Mulcahy , March 13, 2006

Greetings from the world of now-I've-heard-everything. I don't think I'm the last to know, but I sure might be. I was just made aware of a new cyber-dating trend called "toothing." Apparently it began as a hoax by a British Internet journalist a couple of years ago. Ste Curran, then editor at large at the magazine Edge and ex-journalist Simon Byron created an online forum for folks with Bluetooth-enabled devices that wanted to find a date, a partner or other types of "encounters."

According to Wikipedia, in toothing a Bluetooth device is used to "discover" other enabled devices within about 30 feet (10 meters), then send the expression toothing? as an initial greeting.

There are bars in Japan where men and women program their likes, dislikes, what they want in a mate, etc. into a device. They then drink, dance, hang out with their friends as they normally would. However, when someone whomatches their profile is within short range, an indicator will flash. I guess this has been successful for a few years now. It makes sense, as the culture in Japan is very different. Men don't typically walk up to women in bars and ask them out there.

According to Wikipedia, toothing is an example of localized social networking, which is becoming increasingly popular via products such as DodgeBall, MobiLuck, Easy Jack,Crunkie, MamJam, Cellphedia, and Playtxt. A related term is MoSoSo (Mobile Social Software). Nokia has released a product called Sensor which standardizes many of the original concepts guiding the creation of the hoax.

MoSoSo is a mobile social software that associates time and location with some sort of social network. It allows the user to find people close to your location at a specific time that want to network socially, date, or connect in some way.

I firmly believe in the psychology of social networks. If I am looking for a good movie to see, I typically ask a friend. Sometimes a friend will say their other friend saw a movie and it was a bomb. Most likely if I trust my friend, I'll trust that her friend has similar likes and dislikes.

Word of mouth is one of the greatest influencers online today. Just think about it. Have you looked at movie reviews posted by members on Netflix? Maybe you've looked at product reviews by folks that posted on Amazon? Or perhaps you were looking to hire someone, so you posted a job description to an online network?

Online social networks started popping up everywhere a couple of years ago. It seemed like every day I was getting a message asking me to join a person's network. At first I really liked the idea and joined one. Then another one came out, and I tried it--and another and so on. Before I knew it I was on Linked In, Soflow and Plaxo. Now I am utterly confused and find it near to impossible to keep up with.

I do love the ability to be able to reach out to many friends and colleagues within one simple user interface. When I changed jobs, I tried to figure out the easiest way to e-mail everyone with my new contact information. I ended up doing it on a social network. It was quick and easy. However, I also found that many people sent me e-mails saying they didn't do social networks, but wanted me to have their contact info to make sure I stayed in touch.

I guess social networking walks a fine line between communicating and being deemed as spam. If you are reading this, you probably know someone who takes it way beyond the limit. For instance we know this guy who we call (excuse my language) the "Linked In Whore." It seems all he touts himself on is the sheer number of contacts in his network Last I heard he was up around 600.

I'm not sure if many people know it or not, but social networking is fundamentally based on 150 people or less. This "rule" was based on anthropological studies of what makes up a village as well as sociological studies. So in the theory of six degrees of separation, two random people can be connected or linked back via six acquaintances. So what do you think? Do these theories apply? How do you feel about short-range connections? Do you think they are valid or just plain ole creepy? How bout social networks? Do you know people who need to get a life because all they do is solicit others to grow their social network? Post to the Spin blog and we'll see if this is something to sink our teeth into.