Good and Evil in the Online Garden

Wow. There is a freakin’ firestorm of conversation about the social media/online world and some of it is unpleasant and still true.  Some of it is unpleasant and probably not true.

Nathan Hagen wrote Social Media is a Virus.

Chris Brogan has written a couple of angst ridden posts like this one.

And then there is the ongoing skewering of SXSWi.

Funny. I did a Google search “social media dead” (of which I have written also) to look for more fodder  and posts go back as far as 2006! Appears since the dawn of online communities, someone has been ready to pronounce them dead.

Oh. Well.

Now, I think we are seeing more of a turn because people are MAXED OUT emotionally and physically from trying to do everything suggested to market their business. They are following too many people they care nothing about, many of the Internet celebrities we truly love are all saying EXACTLY THE SAME THING, and the “cool kids” (said celebrities) egos might be growing just a wee bit large because they don’t want the icky kids at their table now that they’ve “arrived”.

I still love some of those cool kids but I’ve noticed a few who, lately, don’t seem as warm and fuzzy as they once did. No judging. When people are clamouring for your attention it can get very old and very obvious. Disdain soon follows, right?

I went to SXSWi, making the foolish faux paus of being in a color other than black (seriously?) with a terrific headcold that made me miserable to be around. I LOVED IT, though I still felt small and invisible. Now the cool kids are saying it’s no longer cool. Which we’ve been seeing since 6th grade when the sneaker du jour was suddenly a major geek mistake. Have we not grown up since then?

I have my doubts about social media, but having been helped tremendously by it recently, I also deeply love it. I hope to take a tour to meet some people next year in a beater conversion van (downsizing now…but there are these cats I never wanted…). Not seeing a lot of people because I only deeply care for about 20 online. But a few key, funny, generous folks and clients.

And what about money? I started blogging and never realized people were monetizing. I didn’t know what that was. But, you must do the writing and the interacting for the love of it first, and for the money second. People are far too savvy if it is JUST about money (and there are a lot of expensive conferences that serve no purpose but to teach you how to do this).

So. I don’t think it is a safe bet to announce social media dead. Wheezing a bit, maybe, but the honeymoon period is over. Now we gotta REALLY figure out what we want to do with it.

I want to hang with really deep thinking, sexy, spiritual, funny bleeding hearts. How about you?