Don't Worry - Social Media Does Exist

Things can get pretty silly in the blogosphere, especially at the end of the year. Witness Steve Rubel's claim that there isn't any value in the term 'Social Media'. This is nonsense on so many levels - where to start? Firstly, it ignores legacy media - did my dvd of Star Wars suddenly become a piece of social media? Secondly, the head in the sand view that many bloggers have is American-centric and ignorant of many other channels that are not used (or not accessible) to bloggers. Recall, only 17% of the planet has access to the internet, for example. Thirdly, whenever something is broadcast or recorded and released later, it fails to qualify as social media as there is no backchannel. Ever tried having a relationship with a prime time news caster, or how about a movie? Good luck with that. Finally, and possibly most importantly, what many bloggers fail to notice is that the most successful people in the blogosphere are, in some sense, moving towards mainstream models - main stream media may be getting closer to us, but we are also getting closer to them.

To take Steve seriously, I would have to assume that he is talking about some subset of media, but which subset I'm not sure.

Comments

[JX]

This is actually the first time I've seen the term "social media" being defended from the perspective of "old media". But it actually made sense :-)

[Webomatica]

Good point regarding some "social media" folks moving closer to old media.

[Robert]

i actually think that social media will merge with other systems of communication like mobile and instant messaging...second like is not the best example but certainly meebo and imvu seem to be pushing the concept of immersive environments in the right direction..new startups like the moji intelligent messenger that begin to seriously look at a.i. and natural langauge for enhanced communication within social worlds or immersive environments is certainly hailing a, not so much change in direction, but without a doubt a kind of evolution of the communicative sphere.