18 months ago there were no “social med…

Pete Ashton — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:55:03 +0000

18 months ago there were no “social media consultants”. The term didn’t exist. But for at least a decade before the term people were doing stuff with the internet in a social way and there was a need for a name. Unfortunately with names come definitions (“what is social media anyway”) and definitions, while useful, do tend to limit things. They also make the target bigger for those that might want to dismiss the thing, for good or bad reasons.

I’ve been trying to move away from the term social media since the spring but it’s very hard to explain what it is I do without it. It’s a bit of a millstone.

I think the social media industry will start fading away in the next year or so as the snake-oil salesmen get revealed (some of them might not realise they’re selling snake oil – I occasionally wonder about myself) and those who really know and understand this stuff stop talking and start doing, taking the theory and blurring it in with the rest of societal activity.

There’s nothing fundamentally special about social media. It’s just people talking and sharing. What makes it special is that it’s new.

What’s really weird is how something intrinsically connected to 30 years of Usenet, 10 years of blogging, 5 years of Web 2.0, etc can still be considered new, but there you go.

(see also, kinda: The Bruno Brookes syndrome)

ASH-10 Notebook » socialmedia

18 months ago there were no “social med…