Social MEdia

Social Media has officially eclipsed search as the most popular activity on the web.

It consumes our attention and has become the one of the most central focuses of everything we do.

Personal sharing.

People are rabidly addicted to themselves. We are our own biggest fans and the fact that we can now build and interact with whole communities that we custom build around our own self interests and with people who can add value to our lives gives us a renewed sense of confidence and purpose in the world.

It is what I call REVOLUTION ME. Indulging in one's own self for the sake of growing and bringing value to the community you so desperately want to be an active member in. On the surface social media seems like a very self centered activity but in reality it is an activity that empowers a collective that gives back to those who contribute to it.

"No one can contemplate the present condition of the masses of the people without desiring something like a revolution for the better." Sir Robert Giffen. Essays in Finance, vol. ii. p. 393.

We have long outgrown the simple avatar and short bio and are now represented by a complex series of personal entries.

Hundreds of thousands of moments recorded using a mixture of media such as text (long winded blog posts and spurts of short messages), pictures, videos, hyperlinks and even our whereabouts.

Devices such as computers, smart phones and netbooks, digital cameras, MP3 players, eBooks and gaming devices give us the ability to feed and access these social networks anywhere and anytime we wish.

We now carry with us a sizable network of friends, colleagues, acquaintances, experts and and stragglers who all help us make decisions and are a sounding board for whatever it is that is swirling around our minds.

We are arm ourselves with a village of people who can help us make decisions at any time of day from what to order on a menu to signing a huge business deal. We can take a photo of a shirt and share it with 400 of our closest friends and get instant feedback before we buy it.

Everything we do we now do collectively.

A flurry of new start-ups are now enabling people to shop, conduct business and disseminate information in all kinds of new ways and with much larger and targeted audiences than ever before.

The early promises of the internet are now starting to become realized and it took social media to ignite that revolution.

No great change ever came from the top down (sorry Obama), great change is usually the result of the masses collectively deciding that something must be done.

I am excited and anxious to ride the wave of the next generation of businesses that are cropping up and being fueled with the fire that is social media.

I really didn't intend this blog post to be informative or educational I really just wanted to express my excitement and anticipation for what I think is going to be one of the most exciting times in history.

I will leave you with this wise and prophetic quote from Malcolm Gladwell.

We overlook just how large a role we all play--and by 'we' I mean society--in determining who makes it and who doesn't."
— Malcolm Gladwell

Let's all make more people make it!