Inheritance

At some point many many weeks ago, I think it may have been Erica who coined, for me at least, the phrase "inherited friend". You all probably have at least one inherited friend, and there's a chance you are an inherited friend to someone else. I know I am. An inherited friend is simply an individual who you know by association who joins your group of friends through their existing friendship with one of the group members.

I thought it was a brilliant term when I heard it, as it conveys all the subtle social intricacies of sharing your social frameworks and I wrote the term down to mention it here later. Then I forgot all about it. Last night, I checked out Dan Kaminsky's newest toy Xovi, and it reminded me of how amazing a graph of your social network would look if such a thing were parameterizable. And yes, that's a word.

Of course, a graph of your social network could, for instance, get really out of hand. Damn teenagers.

Update: The famous sociological sex map has gotten a comedic commentary. Aside from the fact that one of the pink dots has mysteriously disappeared — thus invalidating the claim that the map is "100% real and untampered with" — it's still entertaining.