12 Responses to The Seminal Watercooler: Social Media Revolution?

1. Millineryman August 21st, 2009 at 8:42 pm «

   A friend forwarded me this yesterday, and I thought at the end it was just another sales pitch.

   It’s interesting to me to see the difference in how generations communicate with each other. I’m 49, and some off my older relatives are now on Facebook to keep up with their kids. The ones who are on there love it, which is great to see. The people in their 20’s-30s who are part of the theater I’m involved with text and tweet.

   My peers are happy with e-mail, and those without kids don’t want to be bothered with FB. It will be interesting to watch the progression of social media as the younger generations mature, and what the next generation will bring.

   I do believe there’s a fundamental shift, which is part of the progression from radio, to TV, to the internet, and now with cell phones. I’ll leave it to the historians to declare how much of an impact it has.
• Jason Rosenbaum August 22nd, 2009 at 10:40 am «

  See, it’s interesting. I participate in social media a lot (twitter most) but I still feel email is by main form of communication. And I’m 25. So maybe I’m just odd, or maybe its the generation below me, the ones that really grew up on social media, that will really run with it as their mainstay.
2. readerOfTeaLeaves August 21st, 2009 at 10:47 pm «

   (((Millineryman)))

   Jason, first, I think the style and presentation of the data is terrific, and says a lot simply by itself; pacing, zooms, motion all over the screen — very… 2009.

   This whole topic fascinates me, as testable, biological data grows about the iBrain, we’ll have a more clear grasp of how fundamental this shift is, and what it may portend.

   I suspect that we’ll hear more in future years.
   Several teachers and college instructors of my acquaintance have become really intrigued with this topic, based on what they’re seeing in classrooms and workshops.
• readerOfTeaLeaves August 21st, 2009 at 10:54 pm «

  I have the sense that we’re going through a shift as profound as the changes that occurred around 1000 BC, as writing came into existence in the regions around Canaan and Phoenicia in the Near East.

  If what I’m seeing is accurate, and this shift involves rewiring some of our cognitive processing, then we’re at the cusp of the unknown, with enormous implications for education, biz, and social networks.

  Aggregation is clearly an aspect that we’ve never been able to leverage as well before; Seminal is a terrific example of aggregation, as is FDL in general.
3. Ruth Calvo August 22nd, 2009 at 3:07 am «

   imho, the communication on email is an exchange as part of a community, while on facebook you are seeing a particular person with a territory already set up, and your reactions are your part of the deal. Chatting like this, and the more rapidfire kind, are interchange more like conversation, more getting people into community. It’s the community that produces support. Just my idea.
4. Jim Moss August 22nd, 2009 at 6:06 am «

   With the advent of social media and other Web 2.0 phenomena, we are seeing the Internet grow from infancy to toddlerhood. This is only the beginning, and what the Internet looks like when it reaches adulthood – we can’t even imagine.

   I can remember saying in a sermon a few years back that the Internet would change human history as much as or more than the wheel. I got some very strange looks, but I think it is starting to show that it will.
• Jim Moss August 22nd, 2009 at 6:15 am «

  But I also have predicted in a sermon that at some point in the future, the Internet will collapse in Tower of Babel-like fashion.
• Ruth Calvo August 22nd, 2009 at 7:16 am «

  Huh?
  :-)
5. Jim Moss August 22nd, 2009 at 7:55 am «

   In the story of Babel from Genesis, the people all speak one language and come to believe that they can do anything – even become gods themselves. They decide to build a tower into heaven. But God isn’t having any of it. God destroys the tower, confuses their common language, and scatters them across the face of the earth.

   Sometimes, I see a parallel in the way people around the world are coming together through communications and a global economy. I think about the possibility of a computer virus or something of that nature taking down the whole system. The panic that erupted just before Y2K shows that I’m not the only one who has thoughts like this.
• Ruth Calvo August 22nd, 2009 at 8:38 am «

  Sorry not to be clear, I was just making a little allusion to the tower of Babel problem of not understanding what anyone else was saying, not really asking you to explain, but glad you did.
• Jim Moss August 22nd, 2009 at 9:12 am «

  That’s funny, because Internet communication does lend itself to misunderstanding. Not the same as face-to-face.
6. AngelsAwake August 23rd, 2009 at 8:23 am «

   This is actually ridiculously important for the future. (As a note: as a member of Gen Y, I personally hate that term, and much prefer “Millenials”. Where did creativity in naming generations go?) Things are going to be crazy, and they’ll only get crazier.

   Computers- the future.