With social media being a frequent object of buzz itself and self-proclaimed experts offering help with all this newfangled stuff, let me ask you this:
What's really new?
Indeed, the air that we breathe was the very first social media.
Let me prove it — after giving thanks to authors and articles that (i) inspired this one:
Amber: An Open Letter to the Social Business Industry
Matt: What You Need, When You Need It - Contextual Relevance In Social Influence
Gratitude to @Ambercadabra for insisting. And others for prodding me on.
Now, how is it the air is the very first social media? Or rather why do people talk about social media as if it was ... [fill in the blank your way] and more?
It's not about "media"
It's about social. Media? Who cares for the air?
Look at this table. What does it tell you?
Common communication methods
| One-to-one | one-to-many | many-to-many | media |
|---|---|---|---|
| talk |
speech |
conference, buzz |
air (sound) |
| acting |
theater |
demonstration, flashmob |
air, light (sound and sight) |
| draw in sand |
draw on wall |
take turns drawing |
wall, cave, light (omitted fortwith) |
| letter, photo |
mass-mail, newspaper, book |
the mail, the library |
paper, film, postal courier |
| phone call |
conference call, moderated |
conference call, open |
telephony signaling network |
| sound recording, voice mail |
one-way radio podcast |
? |
phonograph, voice mail system |
| moving picture recording |
movies, TV |
personal video |
film, tape, digital media |
| e-mail, chat |
cc-mail, web page, portal, blog |
open chat, forum, wiki |
digital pages |
| SMS |
SMS to list |
twitter, identi.ca |
digital pages |
If not about the media, what is it really about ?
Connecting people
With a shared goal or without, for collaboration or for banter. Pointless babble even.
We want to connect. Modern media increase our reach and save us time. Some, we cannot explain, like telephone or Twitter. Show, don't tell works better, but a blogpost can ony do so much. The term "social media" is off the mark. Want to test whether this is true?
Answer me this: What would be "unsocial media"?
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