“Social media” redefined
As I’ve previously maintained, I think the term “social media” is a misnomer because you’re not social when sitting in front of the computer - you’re antisocial. This is more than just semantics; it points to the fact that maybe it’s not a good thing to spend so much time on the computer, and building a business around using the internet as a “social” platform, a place where people interact, is at best not smart (because people like to be face-to-face), and at worst creates millions of zombies who can only communicate via twitter.
On Friday I listened in on a webinar hosted by FASTForward Blog in which Andrew McAfee and Tom Davenport duked it out over Enterprise 2.0, whether it’s even a meaningful term and how successful it is or isn’t. Pretty interesting stuff and I encourage anyone interested in knowledge management and Enterprise/Web 2.0 stuff to give it a listen. As a result of this and other discussions I’m really starting to see all the 2.0 stuff not as something completely new, but just old stuff done much better and easier. Collaboration has been possible for a long time, it’s just that today it’s much more usable. AJAX had been around since before the term was coined. So any talk gushing about a new era of “socialness” is missing the fact that we’re just witnessing a different stage in an evolution, not something “never-before-seen.”
Which brings me to the point of the post. Instead of “social media,” we should more aptly say “advanced asynchronous communication channels,” asynchronous being they key word here. Writing online is like graffiti on walls: someone may read it, maybe not. Is it social? No. Unless you want to water down the word to the point of meaninglessness.
Tags: enterprise 2.0, social media