12 May 2010 zanee   » (Journeyer)

Social media? Industrial Revolution?

You know; when people start comparing social media to the industrial revolution I have to laugh. In-fact, what is social media? I mean really? See, with the industrial revolution people actually CREATED things. They manufactured new products, goods and services. Everyone was running to invent something that was actually physical. That could aid in the change of a persons day-to-day activity and problems. Social media on the other hand has done none of that. It hasn't even streamlined the idea of connecting people. As far as phones go? They worked a whole lot better when I wasn't getting dropped calls. I'd have to guess that my old Motorola Startac was the best cell phone invented. My iPhone? I get a CALL FAILED if i'm on the phone longer than 10 minutes in some areas. Anyway, with the exception of publishing content online. Twitter, Facebook and anything else that fits in that circle hasn't done much to revolutionize anything. Really, if it all went away tomorrow how would I be affected?

Yeah, I can keep in contact with my outer circle of friends on a regular basis. Maybe I can get some help with a problem or find an interesting way to cook a pancake or something. Beyond that? Social Media isn't shifting anything. It's just where the money is at right now and comparing it to the industrial revolution? Idiocy.

The organization of information at its core is a problem but social networks don't help that. What you are now seeing, or rather, what you are now being fed is another idiot bubble. The reality is this, if one isn't physically creating, or at the very least making gains toward a greater goal in some fashion that betters the human condition in some positive way. Whether it be entertaining, or researching a disease or some such. If everyone is sitting around playing Farmville and pressing thumbs up on photos for a living. If all our scientist are spending time trying to figure out how to build platforms to play games or entertain. We simply have a problem. Seriously, there are simply too many real life problems that haven't been solved for society or humans on the whole as a species to neglect.

So lets recap a bit here. What came out of the Industrial Revolution? Planes, Cars, Telephones, Rocket Science, Labor laws, numerous vaccines etc. These are things you use every single day; they empower you and better the human condition.

Hopefully at some point as a nation (I live in the USA) we can get back to manufacturing and making things that aid not only in our well-being, but also into the discovery of new science and understanding of our environments, communities and selves. So that when we do decide as a species to devote our efforts to "Social media" it is a fair distraction.

And please, don't get me wrong. I like playing games! Facebook and Twitter have been great tools for me in regard to keeping in contact with people. Especially to that extent. However, past that? If they disappeared tomorrow. It would change very little in my life, very little. On the opposite side of the spectrum. If cars disappeared, or planes disappeared. It would change life on planet Earth as we've become accustomed.

So if I referred you here, via link it's because I'm most likely sick of hearing about Social Media, Web 2.0, Google Buzz, some crap Drupal project you think i'd be interested in, etcetera. It actually sickens me that whilst there are "startups" that have been founded in the interest of finding cures for disease and better viable and renewable energy sources. That receive no funding. There is a huge rush on "social media".

So with that i'm going to type this as bluntly as I can get the point across because I'd like to conclude. Social media is in no way comparable to the industrial revolution. Stop promoting it as such and you know what? Think about what you are doing for a living. If you introduce yourself as a Social Media entrepreneur, you may as well have told me you're a Bullshit Artist. In-fact I'd prefer you say that, because at least you'd know it.

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Syndicated 2010-05-11 23:59:19 from Christopher Warner » Advogato

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