The Hub (This post is *not* about Boston)

Gratuitous shot of Boston College by friend and fellow Alum, Chris Skillman.

This post isn't about Boston, although it's a cheap way to get a mention in. This is about my hub of social networks and how I manage my digital presences.

It isn't Facebook or LinkedIn; it's not Twitter (gasp!), it's even ahead of text messaging, I say this with complete certainty: Gmail is my most social network.

It's the center point of all my other social networks (hence the title of this article). I don't sit on Facebook or TweetDeck all day waiting for a direct message, new follower or a tagged photo, It's all siphoned into this one place, ultimately making it my storehouse for each part of my online networks. Considering that there are times when I'm not in front of a computer (again - gasp!), getting notifications in my e-mail also pushes them to my phone as effectively as a text but without the cost. Amazing, this technology thing.

But here's what's interesting - just getting e-mail notifications isn't what made this my social network of choice. The fact is, how I've started to use it makes it seem like my place to go more than anything.

I hardly send "one-to-one" e-mails in Gmail anymore. Most of the time, anything I send is to a large group of people and the intention is to illicit a response or conversation. There's a reason I switched to have the Labs feature "Reply All as Default" up and running - with every e-mail, personal, business, side-activities or what not, I'm expecting to what to talk to the whole group. Single conversations happen on GChat, and I've gotten to the point where I'll still ping a friend even if people are offline, fundamentally "leaving a message." But that group mentality of e-mail flags it to me as a network and medium more than just e-mail.

So does GMail control my life? Nah, regardless of what people think.Is it still the first thing I check in the morning, squinting since my contacts aren't in yet? Yes. Absolutely.

So, to end on another Labs plug - it's unbelievably appropriate that this post is actually being written in Gmail's Offline Mode. Although, I have to say, if I had Wi-Fi on this plane, I would be a happy camper. I'm up in the air (ha!) as to whether or not I'd pay for it - charging for wireless should be a crime - but that's another post all together...