Meritocracy inside our social networks

There is no doubt that I enjoy following celebrities on Twitter. If you hit my twitter profile @bijan you will see that I’m following a mix of celebs in business, sports and music.

It’s awesome to hear their unfiltered thoughts and when you get an @reply from them it’s quite cool.

But this post isn’t about celebs.

It’s about meritocracy inside of our social networks.

My favorite part about being part of a community on twitter, tumblr, boxee, gdgt, stack exchange, is following and interacting with the a new type of “celeb” – those that are born on and inside those networks. There are folks that earn and create their status and reputation by their actions inside the community.

For example I’m more excited about listening to a new song that david noel (@david) shares in tumblr vs something on pitchfork or Rolling Stone. I trust david. He has earned that trust with me and plenty of others by the quality of his content, passion and spirit.

Same is true with gadgets. david pogue on the NYT is less important to me than marco’s reviews on tumblr. Marco created his trusted status with me and plenty of others inside of the network he helped build.

We have a meritocracy inside of our social networks. And I’m very grateful about that.

(please excuse typos and lack of links. Wrote this on my iPhone)