Posts Tagged social media
why “it’s dangerous” is no excuse
when i was growing up in south philly, my family didn’t have much money.  but being kids, my brother and i did what kids do anyway.  we played roller hockey without helmets, gloves, shin pads… pretty much any protective equipment at all.  i tended goal with nothing but leg pads, a — what we called it back in those days — waffle board, a baseball glove, and a stick (all of which was borrowed, hand-me downs, or bought with my paper route money).  i’ve been hit with sticks and pucks in the face, and had more than my share of scrapes and bruises.  looking back at it — it was stupid.  it was dangerous.  but i loved playing hockey!
fast forward about 10-12 years, and i’m wearing a suit and tie — screaming at my team from behind the bench at the penn state ice pavilion with my heart beating out of my chest in my first game as assistant coach for the ACHA division 2 ice hockey team.  my love of hockey that was sown on the streets of philadelphia is the only reason i was able to reach that point in my life.  we beat SUNY stony brook that night by a score of 3-2 — the #1 ranked team in the league.  it was one of the greatest wins in our program’s history, and was the staging point for a season-long run that put us into the quarterfinals of the national tournament in fort collins, colorado that year.
the difference between cool and ice cold
(part 2 of 2)
in the first part of this post, i mentioned how younger generations are leaving twitter and facebook, and how the real growth of those services has been with the older crowd. part 1 talked about the reasons more older persons are joining social media sites; this next part focuses on why the younger population is starting to veer away from them.
the problem with being cool is the risk of becoming too cool. even fonzie (or “da’ fonz” as i like to call him) wasn’t immune to this risk. a cool drink is too cold and you get pain in your teeth. slurpees and icees and slush puppies — whichever of the 900 names you’d like to give those delicious frozen drinks that make your mouth turn colors — will give you brain freeze. and, lately, it appears that facebook and twitter have been spending too much time at the back of a convenient store.
the difference between cool and ice cold
(part 1 of 2)
photo by Cipi*VT*, flickr artist
my twitter stream in the last 2 weeks or so has been mentioning the change in times for online social networking. more than a few users i follow have pointed out some recent news that popular services of twitter and facebook are becoming very unpopular with younger folks, and more of the worlds’ older generations are starting to join the fold. and while many people seemed to share the same disbelief (“but that makes no sense!”), it  actually seems to be perfectly logical to me.
the reason is that there’s a difference between being cool and being ice cold.
but before i get there, let’s talk about the reasons there are more older folks joining facebook and carving out their own space in the twitterverse.
social media: the value of “wasted time”
a co-worker of mine wrote a blog post recently about the “social media wave” and how it’s easy to be caught up in this tsunami of facebooks, myspaces, twitters, and more. with all the social media sites and services out there, in order to keep your head above the water you must have a strategy; you need to understand social media — not just use it.
i mention tracy’s post because of the discussion that it caused in her comments section. people see social media services as time-wasters. many corporations (including the united states’ military, though some restrictions have been relaxed) have even denied access on their networks to certain social media sites. unfortunately, it is a commonly held belief that these services cause more harm than good.
but do they really?
one of the questions asked in my conversation with someone was, “how does blogging help a plumber fix a leak? or how does twitter help an accountant balance the books?” i thought this question showed a great deal of ignorance about what social media is for, and what it does. i’ll take these two examples and explain further…