Social Media: What it is and isn’t

I think it’s safe to say at this point we are all either on a social media site or sitting next to someone who is, at this moment, on a social media site updating their status. Now that Smart Phones like the iPhone and Nexus One are replacing the relics we used to carry around a few years ago (remember how cool you throught the Razor was?), becoming socially linked up is as easy as dialing up your Mother on Mother’s Day to thank her for spanking you as a child and making you break up with that loser you were dating in the 10th grade.
I will attempt to summarize for us noobs (which by the way is a shortened, slightly derogatory version of the nomenclature “Newbie”, meaning newcomer or layperson) what is really going on in the Social Media world in a single post.
Consider this your primer on the Web 2.0.

Not long after Tim Berners-Lee invented the internet in 1989, the Army said, “Hey, we might be able to use this!” and Web 1.0 was born. Practically the only way to get there was through AOL. Some of you might still be receiving software from AOL in your mailbox.
In those days, the Web was static. Meaning, it showed you some information and you used that information in your every day life (the number for Pizza Hut). The Web was a essentially a one way conversation, and we the general public could only passively view the information presented to us. Not a big deal considering that up to this point Radio and Television were essentially the same arrangement. We could no more change website content than we could re-write the ending to a Happy Days episode.
The landscape of the internet (and music and television) became radically altered in 2004 with the introduction of Web 2.0. Actually in 2003 a website called Friendster was launched out of Mountain View, California. This site required user input to create it’s content.
The web we know today operates on this paradigm shift. We are now in the world of user-centered design and interoperability where our input creates collaborative content. The web has become dynamic. If your reluctant Grandfather says of this new concept, “Garbage in, garbage out!”, he’s actually right.
From this platform we enjoy such content as blogs, collective information sharing sites, and video-sharing sites. Names like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Wiki are now household.

Industrial to Social

The landscape of how we communicate is forever changed, along with how we gather and distribute information. Now it is possible for a group or even an individual to reach a mass audience, and to do so without the time lag of traditional media. With Web 2.0 comes the risk of compromised information, collective group think, and plain old ignorance handed down as fact. Take Wikipedia as an example. Hundreds of thousands of individuals have contributed to the online encyclopedia, and it is up to the collective whole to police the information for errors. It has taken a few years, but most of us now use Wikipedia sparingly and consider it grain of salt research. High School and College students have been instructed by their teachers not to even think about putting Wikipedia in their bibliography.

Numbers Game

Now consider someone like Glen Allsopp. At the tender age of 15, Glen builds a website. At 17 it becomes apparent that he understands the Social Media game inside and out. Thousands follow him on Facebook and Twitter. He understands how this phenomenon is wired and what makes people respond. He is a shy young kid who grabbed this industry by the cahones. At 18 he cashes in. Being chased by Nissan, Hewlett Packard and Land Rover, Glen drops out of his Freshman year of College and takes a job in South Africa, making 5 figures a month. A month. After a few great emails, I consider Glen an internet buddy and I follow him on Twitter as he traipses across Europe staying in 5 Star Hotels. The Fortune 500 are still chasing down his genius. He has an affinity for good ale so you might try looking in Amsterdam.

Take Away

I would leave you with this thought. Digital community may be a nice tool but it does not replace real, physical community. You have too much control over the conversation in your digital life and very little risk. Relationships take risk. We can not become fully known unless we allow someone to wrestle from our grip the painful, the ugly, the unbecoming parts of us we can easily hide in our Facebook updates. You may be able to squeeze something profound in 140 characters or less in a Tweet, but will it leave you vulnerable?
With the World becoming more connected, why are sociologists at Duke finding that lonliness in America is running rampant? In just a few short years the number of people in our lives that we can turn to with matters of the heart has dropped by one third and those that have no one has doubled.  Apparantly when it concerns the most basic need for love, affection, and belonging, there’s not an app for that.  So my challenge to you is this: use social media as tool and not as a substitute.  A means and not an end.  Unplug and plug in.  In the meantime, my social bookmarks are plastered all over this site, so let’s be FB friends or connect on Twitter.

Tagged as: iPhone, lonliness, Social Media, Web 2.0