Social Media Empowers You, and You, and You!
Shel Israel has an interesting post entitled “Is Social Media Becoming a Vast Wasteland“. I left a comment, but wanted to expound a bit because it is something I hear a lot from folks, particularly those who don’t want to get involved with social media.
I think on the topic of social media becoming a wasteland of corporate shills, spambots and boring bloggers, I’m actually optimistic (unlike the rest of my outlooks). I agree with the comment on Shel’s post from Lewis Green…we are more in charge today than ever before, that is what Social Media is all about. Just last week I went through and removed dozens of folks from my Twitter feed, my RSS feed and FriendFeed. Next week I’ll add a bunch. I control who I listen to, who I talk with, who I stop from attacking me and ultimately what I get out of all of these social media/network/tool/widgets.
The fact that some bloggers are hanging up their keyboards or becoming pessimistic about the conversation is a really good sign, as is Shel’s questioning about it all. This is a sign of a healthy dialog that makes social media thrive because it is a great example of ‘owner/operated’. I don’t NEED to blog to take part in social media. I don’t HAVE to Twitter to be involved in social media. I CHOOSE how to participate, when to participate and why I participate.
Traditional mediums are similar in that you always have the power to turn off the television or the radio. Cancel your newspaper and magazine subscriptions. Today you can do the same thing PLUS tell folks why and perhaps have them change your mind over time…or not, it’s up to you. Perhaps my outlook on this all is simplistic, but for me that has always been the allure of social media; the simplicity of conversation.
