Very interesting entry yesterday on the Harvard Business Review blog (one of my new faves). Umair Haque, director of the Havas Media Lab, has posted a short, sharp screed about the “social media bubble,” complaining that the Internet is “largely home to weak, artificial connections, what I call thin relationships.” I’ve got many issues with the logic of Umair’s argument. At times, I can’t tell if he’s complaining about the failure of social media to live up to its own hype, or the failure of social media to live up to the hype of the Web in general (as when he writes, “there’s this old trope: the Internet runs on love. Equally, though, it’s full of hate: irrational lashing-out at the nearest person, place, or thing that’s just a little bit different.”). And I can’t yet tell if Umair wants to save social media from itself, or whether he just wants to burst the bubble (he’s in the industry, so I am betting on the former). But I do like that he’s chosen a forum like the HBR blog to launch this conversation. At the moment, I see 57 comments from what looks like a broad range of readers. And he’s promising a follow-up on “we can do” about this sad state of affairs. I’m waiting for the next post impatiently. This is an important conversation and I hope Umair guides it well.