Social Media Sch-media

This is a time unlike any other for both technology and marketing; thus birthing this generation with new "titles" and "labels" attempting to explain the exploration of this new medium - aka. social media.

A lot of bloggers have expressed their disdain for the term "social media." I do agree it is grossly overused, however what a perfect title for this medium and the movement behind it.

Media 1.0 has been dictated to us through news organizations and other corporations with their own agendas. I will never forget when my Israeli friends came to NYC shortly after 911, we were sitting in my apartment in Manhattan and I asked them if they were planning to stay here since life is so chaotic over there. All three guys shot me a look of absolute shock. One of them said, "we live in greater fear being here in NYC." I then said, well what about the suicide bombings, and all that we hear about on the news over here. He said, yes that is true, but your crime is far worse here.

Perception is reality; I learned a very valuable lesson that day. We went back and forth on which was a safer place to be, but there wasn't going to be a "winner" in the discussion. I could not possibly understand how they receive their information on the state of the world, and they could not possibly understand how I receive mine.

Media outlets tout that they are fair, balanced, true, honest ... etc. In psychology I believe that is called reverse psychology; hidden agendas in the news are no big secret. How strange is it that we have come to accept that it is okay for our general source of information to be so tainted? If information were water and our filtration systems were poisoned there would be an absolute uproar. Environmentalists would be screaming, it would be front headlines everywhere. Yet everyday our brains are being poisoned with false information knowingly being spread without regard. What are we doing about it?

Media 2.0 aka. the people's media. People are very often confused by the purpose of Twitter. It is often referred to as a mindless spam generator lacking any true value. These people also thought computers would be the size of entire rooms and only affordable to the extremely wealthy. Twitter is an extremely powerful machine that is entirely user generated. The news happens to us every single day. The news doesn't just happen outside of the CNN building; it is us, it is all around us. We are the witnesses to the stories being told that become history when the sun sets.

Who better to relay the information on what is happening than the people it is actually happening to? These 140 character micro-bloggers are single-handedly giving the power back to the people. We somehow forgot how powerful of a voice each and everyone of us has. Proof is in the pudding, as seen when the news of Michael Jackson having died broke, where did people go? Facebook and Twitter

As far as what the future holds, your guess is as good as mine. However I will say that now more than ever, we stand at a precipice of unforeseen measure. Your move Goliath.

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