lets clarify Social Media
Before we carry on can we just clarify a few points:
- Social media has been going on for million’s of years (social media meaning: the sharing of information and people much like cave drawings could be seen to be instruction as to “how to bring down mammoths”.)
- Social media is not the focus on the method but the content, much like writing a letter is not about the pen.
- Social media is not about computers, technology, the web etc but (in reality) appears to be the accepted method of explaining what you do on the web.
- Web 2.0 is the act of “up-loading” or self publication. Therefore there is quite a healthy argument that it will be ruled by those with “talent”. those with talent at writing are quite different when you meet them in the flesh.
The difference between the pen and the keyboard is that the keyboard can do more such as: create, publish, promote, aggregate, crowdsource etc etc, the same as you would do with your voice down the pub, society meeting, work meeting etc.
So “vegetating” in front of a computer is no different than “vegetating” down the pub, in a conversation/discussion, doing a cave drawing or, indeed, in front of the telly (to a certain degree). It’s just that the web is so new (realistically just over 5000 days old) that it is new for society in general and subsequently attitude needs to relax into a new form – usually for the masses this entails “kicking and screaming” entry, as most humans are averse to change.
That is why a “social media” exchange of views such as this one is so important, whether that be down the pub, on-line, telephone, forums, blogs etc – no body knows the answer yet but we need the companionship of exploration.
The problem at the moment is that “social media”, “web 2.0″ etc is tied to one aspect – a computer, that lump sitting on your desk, so it’s hardly surprising when it’s seen as “banal’ or “vegetative”.
It takes, at least, 30 years for anything to get “groundswell” with the masses – think mobile phones and computers in general – and we’re only just over half way into that 30 year mark with the web (not to be confused with computers in general and using the first browser, circa ‘94, as my mark).
We have to remember that what we are experiencing here is a change in base thinking. It’s gone beyond the physical being and into a fundemental change in existance.
So it’s little wonder that the massive change has not yet “sunk in”
The last big change we had was 150 – odd years ago when the industrial revolution was born which gave rise to the corporate world and their “closed” and “pigeon holed” way of thinking. All of us born outside of the digital age have been brought up with this way of thinking – which is why there is so much struggle to view a computer as anything other than a glorified TV or entertainment device.
Old thinking: Closed, Selective, Controlling
New thinking: Open, Random, Supportive
TV’s (in the most) forms part of the TV industrial complex, a marketing method made good by the biggest “blue-chip” in the world The Catholic Church (although they used books the method is the same). This has since been seized and dominated by corporations, to the extent that we now accept it as part of our daily routine – billboards, radio, TV, magazines, newspaper/s, etc – this does not work on the web, we now have a choice.
As JC said, and I agree with, people like to be part of a tribe so if the TV gives them the social benefit of a common experience. However, my cynical side tells me there is an under current at work here – the same under current can be seen when you feed chickens because they need to be fed, don’t they? Or fattened up for the kill? – but that’s another argument.
So based on the above the web, in time, cannot/will not be seen as “vegetating” in front of computers (remember computers, as we know them, will change (and have done with the advent of the iphone)), but will be seen as “normal” as reading a newspaper, discussion, answering a telephone call – another function of Human “being”.
The same as sharing a cave drawing.
N
