IS NETWORKING SOCIO-ECONOMIC?

Sir,

Networking initially started as a socioeconomic business activity by which groups of like-minded businesspeople recognise, create, or act upon business opportunities.

It also includes terms such as ‘glass ceiling’, ‘role model’, and ‘mentoring’, which serve to identify and address the challenges barring non-dominant groups from professional success. It is a great idea, it has benefitted many people by exposing them to those who can help them climb the success ladder. But is networking all that good?

In the few experiences I’ve had with networking, I’ve seen both the good and the bad in it. But no one ever talks or even recognises the negativity that comes with networking. Networking pushes people to only see the people around them for what they can use them for. It teaches people to use others, to only create parasitic friendships. This almost always means clenching your teeth around bigots because they might help you get a job one day.

Position

When people realise that you are, or might be in a position to help them, then they start ‘asking’, and most of the time the depth of entitlement in these requests is shocking. It makes you feel used, knowing that people are only friendly to you because you have the potential to help them get their dreams met is not the nicest feeling.

Networking re-enforces the patriarchal mentality that people in a better position than others are the only ones who get to be exposed to opportunities. There are people who are naturally socially awkward, people with recognised medical conditions such as Asperger’s, who cannot talk to people and therefore networking becomes only an ableist activity that only the outgoing can benefit from.

Reliance

The reliance on networking is also one of the mechanics that maintains white and male privilege. People tend to form trusted relationships with people who are more like them.

White people often have more white friends, and people usually have more friends who are the same gender as themselves. For example, friends are usually from similar classes, similar backgrounds and similar interests. No, I’m not saying everyone uses other people; I’m saying a classist, capitalist society commodifies everything, including human relationships. Unfortunately, a good concept such as networking has been turned into one of those ways to use people.

It’s like job hunting, only you have to be ‘friends’ with people who set your teeth on edge because you need something from them. You also limit your life experience by targeted social interaction. It’s exclusionary and for an introvert like many, extremely awkward. Wouldn’t we rather just find friends and be friends with them because we like each other, not because we can get something from them?

For many years, people have been getting and giving jobs to people because they were related, that was frowned upon and it was referred to as nepotism. Networking is a modernized form of nepotism.

Think of the number of times you have gotten a job because you knew someone who worked there? And I am almost sure that if you’ve ever been rejected at a place where you applied for a job, you probably knew zero people there. Let us be careful not to create a culture where people become friends with others based on how much they can benefit from the friendship. Let us not re-enforce classism and capitalism. We have come a long way fighting such prejudices.

Nomsa

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: