During a day I will end up reading or skimming over 800+ posts just in my RSS reader. That doesn’t take into account any of my Twitter activity or Buzz reading or even email. In my normal work week of Sunday to Saturday this means I have at some point skimmed or read a minimum of 5600 posts of which anywhere from 25 percent t0 40 percent ( a rough estimate given how the feeds are separated in FeedDemon) are social media or social web related.
This amounts to a minimum of 1,400 posts and you know what …. increasingly they are becoming repetitive regurgitation of that same old crap, not to mention boring as fuck.
Blah blah blah – that’s all is seems to be anymore (of course some will say it’s always been this way but I like to give the benefit of the doubt). It might be stupid ass puff pieces that have absolutely nothing to do with social media but because it mentions Twitter it is given 200 words and gets thousands of ReTweets. Or it could be the never ending – and mind numbing – analysis of yet another copy-cat start-up that wouldn’t know an original idea if it jumped up and bit them on the ass.
Social media has become nothing more than a self-pontificating marketplace of wannabe experts and gurus looking to make some quick easy money off of those companies who don’t have a freaking clue as to how they are being conned. Gone are the days where intelligent conversation could linger for days as the concepts and ideas percolated around the blogosphere. Now it’s all a matter of hyping some new services or start-up that is flush with VC money that either serves no purpose or just mimics one of a hundred just like it.
Where is the effort for social change we all had hopes for because of the power that the Social Web promised us?
Instead we get bragging posts about some kid who gets his car towed away and how that Facebook page could drive the company out of business.
Any outrage over things like BP and the oil spill is quickly replaced by the hot news about some new service or some new shiny toy. Any outrage and pressure for change to the greed and damage done by Wall Street parasites pocketing millions made from human suffering is left in the shadows as we play around with yet another toy destined for the deadpool.
Blah blah blah is the only echo we hear anymore from a space that held so much hope and possibility. Crammed into 2,100 word useless pseudo-essays struggling to justify stupid movie analogies we find a vacuum of banality only to see it echoed by others looking to ride the link coattails.
Social media has become nothing more than a boring echo chamber of hucksters and sycophants looking to do nothing more than puff up their own egos. It has become a swampland of branding , buzzwords, and self-gratifying back-slapping. The fact is people don’t want to hear dissenting or differing viewpoints that attack their favorite social media totems. The reality is that if you aren’t among the top tier willing to kiss ass or glad-handing conference goers you will wallow in the darkness of anonymity regardless of how correct or preceptive your writings are.
Blah Blah Blah – welcome to the Social Media blogosphere.
bottom image courtesy of gapingvoid
Something vexes you Steven? Has MG Siegler written another movie comparison post and sent you over the edge?
Seriously though, we’ve both written about this before. Social Media has essentially (d)evolved into a circle jerk buzzword for marketing.
Sounds to me like it’s time to hit the “unsubscribe all” button and start building your feed reading list again.
.-= Paul OFlaherty´s last blog ..Podcast: WinExtra on Windows #02 – Microsoft, Finding Its Aggression =-.
I agree that it may be time for a cleaning but I have spent over a year curating this list would hate to think that it is totally fubarred.
Maybe it’s just me, but the wave component does not appear to be loading. (Using Chrome, ironically enough)
.-= Paul OFlaherty´s last blog ..Podcast: WinExtra on Windows #02 – Microsoft, Finding Its Aggression =-.
the Dev release or the current stable 5.x release?
It’s showing now, in the current stable release.
.-= Paul OFlaherty´s last blog ..Podcast: WinExtra on Windows #02 – Microsoft, Finding Its Aggression =-.
Paul:
My Chrome wanted me to stop rejecting 3rd party cookies. When I did then the Wave app loaded and worked correctly.
Regards…
- Papa
.-= William”Papa” Meloney´s last blog ..Senators Propose… =-.
Instead of complaining, do something about it. Or disconnect. Or pare down what you read.
Spending 600 words to tell us what’s wrong is pointless. Spending 600 words to tell us what’s right is invaluable.
Bring it, old man. Bring it.
.-= Tyler Hurst´s last blog ..Memorializing those before us =-.
Why is it pointless? I thought blogging was about expressing opinions whether they be positive or negative.
How can we fix what might be wrong if we don’t first ask questions or make points of where something is wrong?
Must be something in the air Mr H, I was forced to use the word sycophantic in a similar context yesterday and will have a post up later.
As you say, the days of really exploring ideas seem to be fading into the mists of time. No-one is really being called to task any more and made to explain their ideas. There is too much back-patting and not enough questioning. Perhaps it is a culture shift in response to the social web now being ubiquitous – no-one feels that they need to dig any deeper now as we all take the social web for granted.
.-= Colin Walker´s last blog ..I just bought a loaf of bread from Sainsburys… =-.
So, let me ask the question. How do you see us fixing the problem? Do we write about oil spills and corrupt wall street instead of technology?
.-= Damond Nollan´s last blog ..Room 3026 Live: How Could Facebook Been More Clear? =-.
Thank you for this post, Steven. I write marketing and communications content so heavens help us, I might be one of the mediocre writers you talk about
While I have strong opinions on macro issues, I endeavor to write about ways we can break down our processes, how we think about stuff (thinking independently the first place is great) and how we can affect change at the micro level. Humans are incredibly resistant to change in the first place — we all are.
A few blogs that buck the kumbaya trend in my feed you may find interesting:
http://geofflivingston.com/ [non profit POV]
http://www.richardrbecker.com/ [communication POV]
http://blog.holtz.com/index.php [communication POV]
http://marketingteaparty.com/ [fin svcs vertical focus]
http://www.gravity7.com/blog/media/ [smart and critical-thinking writing]
There are more, depending on what you’re interested in learning. I’d be curious to learn which blogs/sites others in this thread recommend because they value them. Thank you again for starting the conversation.
.-= Valeria Maltoni´s last blog ..Ten Ways to Become a Better Communicator =-.
Great post! I totally relate. I’ve spent years figuring out how to create an Internet that doesn’t just advance technology but advances society. I have the entire thing written out. How to get the semantic Web 15 years before the experts say is possible, etc. But nobody can be bothered to pay attention. I’ve actually been told that since I’m “an older woman” and not a 20-something male geek, I shouldn’t expect anyone to listen to me.
The thing that gripes me that most is that it’s *social* media, but do tech companies or so-called SME’s give any attention or respect to social science? Not that I can see.