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A quick search on Google for the term ‘Social Media’ currently retrieves over 203,000,000 results. Just before Facebook started to make a name for itself and emerged on the scene back in late 2006 the buzz word on the internet was ‘Web 2.0,’ even then people were quick to chime in with there 10 pence worth and were happy to give you their opinion on the next best thing on the internet. This unfortunate movement also bought with it a hell of a lot of ‘Marketing Bullshit’.
Its got to the stage where I can no longer read Mashable or Techcrunch because of the saturation and influence that these so called ‘social media’ experts and journalists seem to be having on the industry. This so called next movement has unfortunately made everyone (even my Mum and Dad!) an expert in social media (whatever social media really is?) so it seems. I used to be an avid reader of Mashable and Techcrunch however i started to notice articles that were just plain crap observations, for example recently i found this post on Mashable, ‘The top ten Twitter trends this week.’ I mean WHAT THE HELL! This made it into an article! This is a classic example of so called social media biting itself in the ass. Im a savvy internet user if i want to know what’s trending on Twitter i’ll check the Twitter homepage. Social media really just stands for, ‘We’re going to make your browsing experience twice as complicated by bombarding you with pointless facts an figures and plain obvious tips on how to promote your business using Twitter, Facebook and social networking.’ I mean HELLO! bands and teenagers have been doing this stuff for years on MySpace, Hi5, and Bebo its nothing new.
It’s just plain marketing bullshit, and it just purports to makes anyone an expert if you have a Twitter or Facebook account, so in effect it just bastardises people who actually are knowledgeable in this area. I don’t class myself as an expert in anything. If your an expert you have nothing more to learn and we all have something to learn even more so on the internet.
Social Media = Way too much noise!
Ben says: I get what you mean. Those websites just feel like the front page of Digg. Horribly plastic and commercial with no real meaning in the words.
Good post, I’ve not come across many articles like this. And it’s quite interesting to see how the giants effect the internet.
I can definitely agree with you there, but at the same time – I just don’t read those types of posts. I ignore posts like that, and stick to the posts that actually offer some interesting information to me. Social media, pffft….
Designer and web developer, Co-founder and Technical Director at Harkable.com London. Previously I worked at InMobi, Spotify and MySpace. Interests include photography and making short videos. Also an avid F1 fan.
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3 discussions around Social M***a.. What?