One of the reasons I like to read others’ blogs and that I enjoy being a member of a global New Media Community is that there are people out there who are far more eloquent than I and inevitably there are people out there who think at least some of the same thoughts that I do. (hard as that is to believe).
I came across a post from a local blogger today that reinforced these very points.
Dawn at Dawnpapuga.com posted an excellent article on "New Media Malaise". Dawn’s post is quite a read and gets you thinking.
To highlight a couple of her points:
I was thinking only yesterday and wondering how Twitter is different from a Chat room. I think I came to the conclusion that it’s really not. It’s slower (i.e not a constantly scrolling screen) and has multiple ways to post to it.
Twitter, when you get down to it is a custom chat room containing people you invite.
I guess I made this more the case when I piped Twitter into my IM. Refreshing the Twitter site constantly bugs me and doing twitter via IM streams it more.
Using Twhirl however, streams it a little more than the Twitter site and adds excellent functionality.
Dawn is also right in stating that because you have a massive following it doesn’t make you an authority on a subject. Yes, it hands you a certain amount of influence (and I say ‘hands you’ on purpose).
Inevitably though, there are people in certain people who are followed (be it on a blog, on Twitter, on FaceBook or another forum) for the wrong reasons and because many people are following these people then more people follow them and this becomes the wrong reason for some of these people, it increases popularity and detracts from other more… real people out there. 
I think there are people who believe that Social Networking, Social Media, New Media and the like is all about growing a massive network, a circle of so called friends and boosting your ego because so many people appear to be taking an interest in you.
These aren’t friends. Using the word friends on such a broad, grand scale like this really diminishes the word and the meaning of it.
I know there are New Media types out there who really do know the meaning of the word friends.
One of the more prominent people in New Media dropped me an email a couple of weeks ago for no other reason than to just to see how I am.
This shows a big, very big difference in the two types of Social Media types in the upper hierarchy (that is is bound to form in any community) there are those who are in it for Self Promotion and to see how many ‘friends’ (bleh) they can collect and there are those who are in it for the community and to truly see who they can help, what they can do and how they can further the community.
I’ve talked about it before in a couple of posts about the online community helping a real community and what certain ‘online celebrities’ simply aren’t doing to be ‘social’ and to be a ‘community’.
I know that one person would travel for hours to help my fire company raise funds/awareness and the other wouldn’t answer my email, let alone travel to the other side of the city.
Wow, this post evolved as it went on but I’d like to know what you think.
and check out Dawn’s blog.
