The immenseness of cyberspace can swallow you whole if you’re not careful. Much like the solitude of the open ocean, you’re often alone in an unpredictable environment. And, like being on the ocean, the tides, winds, and weather are almost impossible to judge for a novice navigator. In this vastness, people everywhere are grasping for a lifeline. Did I see someone toss out a web 2.0 lifesaver?
You’ve established all your accounts, you populated friends and followers, and you’ve told everyone who will sit still for a minute about your online adventures. You’ve set up britekite to detail your every move on the earth and you’ve posted pictures of every fancy restaurant meal known to mankind. But now, like that lone boater out on the night sea, an emptiness begins to creep in. The real question is, what to do once the excitement of social media like FaceBook and Twitter start to wane?
What we’ve got to start asking ourselves is whether we’ve got another CB radio fad on our hands. Heaven help us, now that Oprah and Ashton Kutcher are the darlings of Twitter, how far can we be from a Twitter movie and song of the caliber of Convoy? Anyone close to Twitter has already seen that the marketing folks have been infiltrating the ranks much like the creature in Alien sticking its tentacle down our collective throats. Once these types take control, they’ll plaster us up against the wall and start picking out wallpaper for the nursery.
Basically, as with just about everything else in life, we have to make a choice to take control or let circumstances dictate the future. As I’ve often pontificated, taking control entails making sense of the morass of information that is gathered though the non-stop interactions being made in social media. If we don’t do it ourselves, the marketers will happily define, craft, and manipulate it for their good, not ours. And, as with Icarus, we’ll fly so far, so fast, and so high that we won’t see the sun until it’s too late.
“His eyes seem so glazed
As he flies on the wings of a dream
Now he knows his father betrayed
Now his wings burn to ashes to ashes his grave“
So That's Life?
Flight of Icarus
04/27/2009The immenseness of cyberspace can swallow you whole if you’re not careful. Much like the solitude of the open ocean, you’re often alone in an unpredictable environment. And, like being on the ocean, the tides, winds, and weather are almost impossible to judge for a novice navigator. In this vastness, people everywhere are grasping for a lifeline. Did I see someone toss out a web 2.0 lifesaver?
You’ve established all your accounts, you populated friends and followers, and you’ve told everyone who will sit still for a minute about your online adventures. You’ve set up britekite to detail your every move on the earth and you’ve posted pictures of every fancy restaurant meal known to mankind. But now, like that lone boater out on the night sea, an emptiness begins to creep in. The real question is, what to do once the excitement of social media like FaceBook and Twitter start to wane?
What we’ve got to start asking ourselves is whether we’ve got another CB radio fad on our hands. Heaven help us, now that Oprah and Ashton Kutcher are the darlings of Twitter, how far can we be from a Twitter movie and song of the caliber of Convoy? Anyone close to Twitter has already seen that the marketing folks have been infiltrating the ranks much like the creature in Alien sticking its tentacle down our collective throats. Once these types take control, they’ll plaster us up against the wall and start picking out wallpaper for the nursery.
Basically, as with just about everything else in life, we have to make a choice to take control or let circumstances dictate the future. As I’ve often pontificated, taking control entails making sense of the morass of information that is gathered though the non-stop interactions being made in social media. If we don’t do it ourselves, the marketers will happily define, craft, and manipulate it for their good, not ours. And, as with Icarus, we’ll fly so far, so fast, and so high that we won’t see the sun until it’s too late.
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