Power 2.0
Social capital allows you suggest and ask in order to get people to mobilize around your agenda.
You don’t force or bother or threaten.
And that, my friends, is Power 2.0.
In reference to a recent conversation about audience creation via online platforms, I could not have said this better. It is the very idea of “social capital” -the intangible “monetization” (and I’m not referring to actual money) of social media, its merits, and its latent and obvious network webbings- that too many people do not comprehend and refuse to grasp -if for no other reason than too many believe it to be a passing fad, something cute, something the youth have latched onto out of trendiness.
What have you created with your own social capital? How do you measure its value? Can you measure the value or is it simply priceless?
NBC/Comcast Merger & Boxee
As many people know, NBC Universal and Comcast are to become one, an event that is now being brought in front of our lovely government officials. We are all aware of the fact that more and more, such content is being viewed online. Bring in all of the drama between Hulu (which NBC has a huge stake in) and Boxee (which I firmly believe will ultimately render cable TV obsolete) concerning Hulu content being “distributed” via the Boxee platform. This little flap was brought up today, “What about Boxee?” and Boxee CEO, Avner Ronen responded appropriately via the Boxee blog. After watching the clip (which Ronen has linked to in his blog post) and then reading Ronen’s response, it begs the question: why is NBC Universal getting so upset over “distributing” via the Boxee platform? Correct me if I’m wrong, but Hulu users have the option of embedding Hulu videos -essentially distributing them- via their blogs, Twitter, FB, and half a dozen other outlets. The ad revenue generated by people watching the videos is still the same -if not more considering the videos are basically getting more exposure through directly embedding them and/or linking to them via blogs and Twitter. It’s the same concept with Boxee -except that people could actually watch the content on their televisions via the Boxee box. Boxee isn’t stealing the content -just providing another venue for accessing it.
Sometimes I think dinosaurs are running these corporations with no regard to the future -except with rather futile attempts at preserving their own (fail).
(via notational)
the tumblr fame experience is an interesting one. like a walk down venice beach and spotting the crowd-gathering geeks doing what they do best: artistry. some have big crowds, some have little crowds; there’s no formula for either. some of the geeks are swallowing chicken heads and thus by the relationship of the lowest common denominator of entertainment, they’re amazing thousands that can’t turn away. other geeks are showing off party tricks, ripping out their hearts; learned from the psychic surgeons. these, too, can amaze crowds. some geeks just figured out how to bend spoons while another has tourette’s limited to 140 characters.
it’s cute. it’s really cute, in fact, that it’s endearing. in our mid-20’s, we’re revealing stuff to others that normal people usually reserve for a pint at a dive bar. our angst, anxiety, anger, loneliness, emptiness, sadness all manifested as words, photos, sayings, websites, transcripts, music, and youtubes. i feel okay knowing that there are others out there facing the world the same way. but the ticking clock is always there. would this still be cute when we’re 30? julia allison is the road sign that shows you the offramp.
one leads you, if you stick with this, whatever this is, to a path where maybe you can earn a pretty coin leveraging your audience of thousands into some book, some show, some petty referral ad dollars. the other road is where you’ll finally get what you’ve been denied: a real world job, settlement on love, kids, and a spot on unhappy hipsters. in five years, a lot of you on here will be making that choice. tumblr isn’t going to be as fun when it’s just a buncha old people talking about cats with funny texts or insidery celebrity gossip all day inside a cafe. or, maybe it’ll be just as cute as when i was stuck in a party where all everyone talked about was mortgage products.
i’m trying really hard to find new content, good content. the people on tumblr that don’t have an audience and they just keep chugging it away, with or without the merit of an audience. they do it because that’s just their personality. and the real artists, the one that persevere and last, whether you have just one person or a million, whether you make money or not, whether you end up being illegit, i wish you resolve. the world needs more unboring artistry that can’t be stuffed into round hole directory categories.
We now have a tangible, distinguishable manifestation that allows us to denote the leaders, the followers, and the outskirts. Tumblr is cute for those that recycle content -reblogging posts with images, sound, and text. The recyclers are the followers -they do not contribute anything new or interesting for the rest of the world to feast upon, but rather feed them scraps of afterthoughts to starve upon. For those that create that which we consume -ideas, quotes, images, soundtracks for our very own little lives- Tumblr (and other outlets) are tools that carve up and distribute their creations. These are the leaders of both the physical world and the digital world that exists within the Cloud. Occasionally, the leaders follow other leaders, but most followers remain followers as they rechew the little gems of the leaders and somehow gain followers of their own. Then there are the outskirts, for whom social media is merely an outlet of expression.
So… Yes, the merits of an audience are indeed up for debate, but whether or not social media become tiresome once you hit 30 remains entirely dependent on how and why you utilize it and what you contribute via your use of it.
Login to Twitter. Login to Facebook. What you see is a world that you’ve constructed. These are YOUR “Friends”, the people you’ve chosen to follow. Or at least the people you’ve been guilted into following. These people shape your experiences of social media. They speak about things that matter to you, either because you know them personally or because you like the way they think. They speak like you. Or, more accurately, you speak like them. Cuz even though you might think you’re speaking to your “audience,” your sense of norms is based on the content you read. So, really, you’re speaking to the people you follow, even though they might not be the ones who are actually listening. You aren’t speaking to your “audience” but to the people who you like to watch. Your sense of what people do with social media is highly dependent on what you consume, how you consume it, and why you’re there in the first place. So is mine. The world you live in online looks different than the world I live in. And it looks different than the world that an average teen lives in. And it looks different than the world Lady Gaga lives in. And it looks different than the world that people from different cultural backgrounds experience. Our worlds are different, even if the interface gives us the impression that they’re the same.
– Danah Boyd (via somethingchanged) (via notational) (via orphelinesauvage) Via L'ORPHELINE SAUVAGEAre we losing that sense of human connection?
Today we have all sorts of ways to keep contact with people that are in our lives both actively and passively that no longer require that sense of human touch. Email has gradually replaced letters sent via post. Instead of the 10-Year High School Reunion, now we have Facebook where people update what’s going on in their lives on a daily basis –from what they ate for breakfast to what their kid threw up to whether or not they’re 1)Single, 2)Married, or 3)Looking for Random Play. You may or may not want to know what the Prom Queen is doing with her life, but she can still look you up and request to be your friend now –even if she hated you back when you were 17. Your LinkedIn profile with its list of “Connections” somehow socially dictates whether you have been successful in business or not and sometimes it acts only as an online black book for all of your professional contacts. LinkedIn is essentially your Rolodex, but online and on steroids.
Notes passed around class were replaced with text messaging and now, text messaging is being replaced by Twitter, the ever-expanding ecosystem of Twitter, and the world of mobile device apps such as Foursquare, where you can let the whole world know how many times you’ve been to the Pink Elephant in NY, NY and if you’re there right now. Even voicemail, which replaced physical answering machines what seems to be a million years ago, has been edged out via software programs such as Google Voice & Phonetag –whereby your voicemail is transcribed and sent to your email. With the increase in communication methods, the simplification of communication that has birthed unnecessary, overcommunication in order to somehow make evident how small the world is becoming, to bridge the gap in communities and cultures, to decrease the digital divide that once cloaked parts of the world in darkness, I can’t help but wonder if we’ve lost sight of the whole pointed of being “connected”. If we merely spend all of our time in front of screens –whether they be our computer screens or mobile device screens- is that “I’m in like with you” lost in translation? If the only evidence of our existence is numbers and code lost in The Cloud, do we really exist at all?
Is it necessary to document every last minute of our lives? Do we really need any more proof of living that our own experience of it?
For this new generation born in the flood of new media and the change that is crushing old boundaries everyday, it should be their one mission to not only remain connected, but to do so in manners that are genuine, sincere, and meaningful. Productivity hacks and tools all have their place, but when bigger/faster/stronger/cheaper sacrifices the soul of any activity they are nothing short of modes for addiction… Of course, who’s to say that sending out mass holiday cards via Twitter or whatever platform is available in twenty years won’t be as fulfilling?
Given what we have today, the Internet could easily become Invisible High School, with a modicum of educational material in an ocean of narcissism and social obsessions. We could, however, also use it as an Invisible College, the communicative backbone of real intellectual and civic change, but to do this will require more than technology. It will require that we adopt norms of open sharing and participation, fit to a world where publishing has become the new literacy.
– Clay ShirkyOn and on we go as the world turns, as the world burns.
Come from Mount Zion and stay out of the whirlwind.
Move to the music, ‘cause the world don’t sit still.
In silence, we climb through blindness.
About Me
I'm a filmmaker and a writer. Social media fascinates me for no other reason than the fact that it is continually changing the ways in which we communicate and what we communicate. Currently unemployed with lots of side projects cropping up from the soil. I'm also working on a novel and write about everything else here.
Email me: salamander@salchrist.com
Sal Christ
