I’ve reached a point recently where I’ve been forced to reflect on just what it is I do. What is my value to society and the world? What is it about me that makes me a "contributing member of society"?
Looking at what I’ve been doing for the last 3-4 years or so you could, perhaps should, have drawn the conclusion that I’m "into" social media.
That is true after a fashion, but I think it goes well beyond that. I’ve been spending the past, oh, 20 plus years working on refining my thinking, mind, and knowledge to be able to take disparate parts and then turn them into a (semi) cohesive whole.
Not always an easy thing mind you.
Now I’m looking at this world of social media and social networking in a new light. Perhaps a harsher light.
I’ve been looking at it in terms of what is new, different, cool, and interesting about it. Essentially, all based on: "What do I want to do now"?
There is no social media or social networking. It hit me that really all of this is just BS.
This isn’t Huxley’s Brave New World or Orwell’s 1984, we’ve just reached a congruence of factors that allow more people to think they have a voice. We’ve reached a point where the sharing of information has been mistaken for passing on knowledge, but as Caleb Carr wrote "information is not knowledge".
What, I think, has been missed is that nothing that we’re doing right now is anything new. People have talked, written, connected, built relationships and connections for thousands of years. What is new is that our technology has allowed us to expand the boundaries of who we can connect with. Beyond the village, province, nation, continent, beyond to include all of us.
I spent pretty much a week off line. I think I saw a TV on maybe once. My cell phone was off. Computer, disconnected from the "Interweb". Yes, I read and listened to music. Yes, my computer was turned on a few times, but I found it incongruous to the mental space I was in, something akin to showing up to prom in a wet suit.
In this week offline, I had time to think and reflect (when I wasn’t basking, counting crocodiles, or sipping rum drinks), from that is that phrase above:
Social media and social networking is BS, but it will work anyway.
The point isn’t how many posts people write, how many AJAX-powered to-do lists, or Ruby on Rails based micro-messaging systems we have, it’s the realization that what we’re doing isn’t new but just, well, interesting.
Realizing this is pretty astounding, even frightening, if you want to base your career on social media.
Frankly, I don’t think I do anymore, because it isn’t social media but society, technology, and communication that are the lasting parts. It’s being able to take information, ideas, passions, and beliefs and make them blossom in other people’s minds.
I’m good at writing. I’m good at marketing. I’m good at applying the right technology to the right problem. I’m rather good at seeing the bigger picture. Oh, and by the way, I get these new tools pretty well. I’ve even helped build a couple too.
Still, when I sit down, listen to what I really have to say, I know I love putting all the pieces together. Which is ironic, because I dislike doing puzzles. Go figure.
Yes, social media and social networking is BS. It isn’t new or Earth shattering. It isn’t anything already done in the past, it’s just being done better now. However, because of this permanence of communication, and because we can’t help but to what to share with each other, it’s all going to work out in the end.
And for the record, no, I’m not quitting blogging or other of these new tools. I still love to write and use all these tools to pull in scads of information for me to process and digest. Tools, remember, think tools.
However, in the end, maybe I’m the one who’s full of BS.
Tris Hussey is a writer, teacher, blogger, and speaker on all facets of Internet life, WordPress, and social media. If you are interested in having Tris speak, teach, lead a workshop or consult for you, feel free to email tris [at] trishussey [dot] com.
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Hi Tris,
Are you missing the island? The big city getting to you already?
(although there are days when I feel the same … Shel Israel had a riff on the same topic).
But overall, I’ve met the MOST amazing people – authors & others that would’ve been beyond my reach without social media tools.
Hang in there (it is a good gig after all!)
Connie
Hey Tris, I gotta say, I think you’re dead to rights on this one. I posted on this topic as guest on Colleen Coplick’s Buzz Networker blog: http://www.buzznetworker.com/microfame-micro-impact/
I think that social media is just another format, rebranded for a new generation of marketeers. It’s the construct du jour that we’re drawn towards because of all of its shiny happy tools. But ultimately, we’re having the same conversations wrapped up in a new collection of digital venues. Being successful at it requires, ultimately, the same social abilities and networking connections that have been available to us for thousands of years.
Interesting thoughts for sure. Taking away all the glitter, paint and shiny things it’s really just about doing what we’ve always done. The tools just make it look cool and smash more of the physical boundaries that have held us back in the past. Nice thoughts. Thanks for sharing and glad to see you back safely.
@Lisa and @Jason, thank you. Yes to quote the Talking Heads: Same as it ever was.
@Connie…and you said the key thing: tools. It is what the tools allow us to do that makes this amazing. Remember, email is rather old (having had a .edu email in 1988). And since I’m still not quite off Jamaica time and haven’t gotten back to the Island. Nope, not having any city or Island issues.
What, I think, has been missed is that nothing that we’re doing right now is anything new. People have talked, written, connected, built relationships and connections for thousands of years. What is new is that our technology has allowed us to expand the boundaries of who we can connect with. Beyond the village, province, nation, continent, beyond to include all of us.
Yes. This is essentially what I’ve been (or trying to) saying for a while now. But / and … because it’s visible now, and accessible to others in ways that were not possible pre-Internet, much of what was accepted as background formal (and pretty much static) structure is being questioned. Which is as it should be.
And as the questioning and exploring proceeds, new ways of doing the same old communicating and exchanging are appearing .. and it’s these that will lead to an updating (however it unfolds) of industrial era structures for “managing” the communications and exchanges people have always been (and always will be) doing.
Good stuff, Tris.