How stuff spreads (4) the bottle-glass trick

Great new format for a breakfast meeting yesterday - hosted by the redoubtable Steve Moore.

Interesting chats by Jeremy, Kevin and Matt, each attempting to define "what's next?" in their respective worlds. Lots of great insights and ideas. Wish I'd had a tape running.

That said, the story that stays with me is one Matt told of some current work C4 are doing about how teenagers are using media today.

Seems one girl the researchers were following was hanging out online doing amongst other things a spot of the hi-speed Instant Messaging that only the young can really manage for any length of time.

She had sorted all her contacts into 6-7 or seven groups - schoolfriends, family etc but also "bitches" "wankers" and so on. What was striking though was the way in which she switched contacts between the groups in real time. Even if the members of her different social networks remained mostly consistent over the short term, their roles were in constant flux. And those are just the small set of folk she is in regular contact with regularly...

Something to bear in mind the next time you here talk about how stuff spreads through social networks and how there are some folk through whom information and influence flows. If only it was that simple...

In reality, it's like watching the great Tommy Cooper do - in his inimitable shambolic stylee - the trick here.

Things are - or seem to be- constant motion...whenever you lift the cover, the thing you expect is not there. Bottle or glass?