Found myself needing advice today, and mentally ran through my cyber-deck of experts to see who I could e-mail about a few things.

In the time that I spent explaining what I wanted in an e-mail, I could have ran to Twitter and said: “Hey, anyone know of…” or “Anyone have a link for…” Instead, I e-mailed people I knew and asked for their advice.

There’s a huge difference between tapping into “the hive mind” where you may get a bevy of responses you can judge quickly, as opposed to getting one response from a trusted source. When you get a variety of responses from multiple people, you can ascertain if the value of the advice is similar and pick the best option. By singling out an individual, you’re viewing them as someone who will give you that best option.

The other benefit to asking an individual for advice, is that you are making a personal connection through a one-to-one exchange. You’re saying: “Hey, I trust that you’re going to give me the right information.” With crowd-sourcing, that dynamic changes because now the onus isn’t on you for the connection. You’re throwing something against the wall publicly, almost like posting a flyer, and the other people who see that will either chime in or not.

What’s also interesting about the crowdsourcing on social media to me, is that sometimes it feels like a trivia game. The volume of people using Twitter or similar tools to ask questions is pretty staggering. When people respond, often I feel like it’s because they’re trying to establish themselves as an expert for that particular category.

One thing I have noticed, is that when I’ve asked questions in the past not because I didn’t know the answer, but because I wanted to strike up conversations, some people treat me as if: “Well, duh! How come you don’t know this?” In other words, some people view questions as an indication that the person lacks knowledge or intelligence on that topic. To me, that’s fascinating because that may highlight how little we know people we talk to on social media. If we’re there for the conversation, then are we fulfilled simply by the interaction? If the other person on the end of the line wasn’t a human being, but a robot — could we tell the difference?

About 100 Days: From April 4th to July 13th I’m turning the lights off on Facebook, Twitter and IMs for personal use. Read 100 Days: Turning off the Lights on Social Media for more information. You can also read the 100 Days post archive.