The Errant Æsthete

One doesn’t have to be very far along in life before you realize that membership in the country club, a seat on a special committee, a slot in an ivy league school or a promotion to department head usually comes down to one unassailable fact: it’s all in who you know. Now that most democratic of systems — the social networks (Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn) — who are constantly competing for the biggest number of “friends” online are being upstaged by three new so-called velvet networks, “gated sites … with tough membership requirements and, presumably, more elite social networking.”

Are you on the digital A-list? These days that’s where the big action is with many movers and shakers taking their hobnobbing online, where a new crop of social networks aim to keep out the riff-raff by demanding credentials at the virtual door. Get ready for the old Groucho Marx quip, “I don’t care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members. “

Walls are going up. The scene is more velvet-roped club, not open-mic night. These three gated sites are among those with tough membership requirements and, presumably, more elite social networking.

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