Is social media the emperor in his latest new clothes?
When you are swept up with the interest about social media – as we are - it is refreshing to read a different view/opinion on the rise of social media. Take a look at this piece.
There probably will be a shake out of social media networks eventually. There are so many being launched. Not all of them can reach the heights of Facebook. But the desire of people to engage with one another using new web-enabled technologies is not going to go away. People want to connect and share interests. Familes want to stay in contact with each other despite physical boundaries. Music fans want to share music. Football followers want to chat about their team’s results and watch the video clips and so on.
Social media – technologies which enable people to share audio, pictures, text and video – is already so ingrained into our lives. Twitter is being integrated into TV. Facebook is on mobile phones. Communities of mums are organising social media-driven meet up groups in cities around the world.
Major companies are using Twitter for recruitment. The FT (see the Lex column) is on Twitter and BBC journalists are blogging. The Queen and the Pope are on YouTube and President Obama is extensively using social media. The list goes on and there are plenty more examples.
People want to take and share photos, publish videos, share news with one another, and express themselves. Fundamental human needs are being provided with easily accessible and open platforms on the web. I don’t personally see this as a flash in the pan. The seeds of this change are already deeply ingrained within the forthcoming generations as well. How could you ever turn the clock back now?
