Why Social Media Is Like The Ed Sullivan Show
October 10th, 2011 9:42am by Nick Sweeney
Social media is in its infancy. It's just a little baby spitting up and screaming and cooing and often, making up a bunch of crap.
But it's so cute and fun to play with, isn't it?
But think about it: let's say social media is ten years old (that's being generous). If we compare where we in social media with where TV was ten years out, we're still in the Ed Sullivan stages. So, I guess we can rejoice and be grateful there's no MTV yet.
Still, Ed Sullivan. And not even The Ed Sullivan Show, but his first show, Toast of the Town.
Yeah, I've never even heard of it, either. So, it makes me wonder how we'll look back on where we are now in say, ten, twenty, or heck, even five years from now. Five years ago, MySpace was king, YouTube was still being coded, and Facebook was just some dopey site for college kids.
But as we play with all of these tools, angry birds, and towns named after farms, you have to stop and ask: is social media changing us as much as TV changed our grandparents?
John Battelle would argue, yes. Last week, Brian Solis interviewed John about his upcoming book called What Hath We Wrought.
If you have 22 minutes to spare, you should definitely take a look at the interview to see where John thinks social media is going. And give yourself a challenge: do not tweet, update your Facebook status, check your email or go read another article the entire 22 minutes. See if you can last that long without getting your social media on.
As for me, I can't wait to read the book when it comes out in 2013. Who knows? By then, I might be telling my friends about it on an entirely new platform.