Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Back in aught-nine, before the possibility of a Facebook-induced revolution was even a gleam in someone’s eye, I held forth on the perceived benefits–or lack thereof, more accurately–of social media. You engage and engage with little in the way of real-world return, I claimed, before slamming my fist on my desk and logging out of Blogger in a huff. That was then. If you had asked me to revisit the topic a year later, I would’ve conceded somewhat and softened my objections, citing coupons on Twitter as my main piece of evidence.

But something happened recently, way down in Egypt land, and I’ve had to reevaluate my stance again. Maybe there’s something to this phenomenon after all, you know? Here’s my train of thought. At the end of the day, social media is simply another way for people to talk. Now, what people discuss, well, there’s the rub. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say we generally tweet about stuff that’s, oh, slightly less important than telling Pharaoh to let my people go.

There was a greater cause, a far larger idea percolating in the collective Egyptian consciousness, and Facebook was simply the valve. They hitched a wagon–a 140-character a pop, normally annoying wagon–to a star. It makes me wonder whether being able to use these very same channels to prattle on about how the local Starbucks is now serving Trenta Chocaccinos, OMG LOL OMG, is a kind of milestone, a privilege. It’s, like, hey! This is what might happen if you take your newly minted freedom and run-rate it 10, 15 years. You can look forward to this.

Originally I wanted to discuss LinkedIn, but we clearly ended up in a different place. Now it’s time for bed, because I’ve got an 8 AM meeting tomorrow. It will likely call for opinions, and being able to vocalize them will require consciousness, at the very least. Sleep has been elusive recently. I have this recurring dream wherein I’m soaring through a darkening sky, sometimes in a plane, sometimes without, and there is a massive swirl of black clouds and electricity on the horizon. Diagnosis? Unsure, but I suspect a measure of peace, rather than Ambien, is needed.