Does Social Media Really Matter?
by locastatic
The touted theory is that you must have some sort of “online presence” in order to be employable. This was why I began this year’s social media experiment. As mentioned in another post, I don’t want to become irrelevant before retirement. And so, I connect like everyone else.
However, even as I peck away at this keyboard (instead of swinging in my new hammock with a good book), I have doubts.
All the software and tech tools we use today, were created, basically, by a bunch of white guys in Silicon Valley who know each other. (If you don’t believe me read The Start Up of You by the co-creator of LinkedIn.) These software guys… no, that’s not right, most of them don’t know how to program, they’re entrepreneurs. These entrepreneur guys invented the rules that we who use their tech tools should live by. It’s thanks to guys like Ried Hoffman that people now believe we must connect with others online in order to stay relevant.
But is this really true? Is someone who is not on LinkedIn less job-worthy than the guy who is? The gimmick is that the public believes social presence is now necessary. Guys like Reid Hoffman have not only invented the software, but also have invented the belief that we NEED it!
Posting doubts about the usefulness of social media and Web 2.0 is like trying to convince a stoner to not inhale. The people I’m communicating with are, after all, already using the software. We’re already hooked.
In today’s Los Angeles Times, Patt Morrison interviews Evgeny Morozov who wrote a new book called To Save Everything, Click Here. This is a MUST READ for me! Why? Because apparently Mr. Morozov agrees that what we’re doing online is a trivial distraction from REAL LIFE. To quote, “Silicon Valley is not stupid. They’re building tools that are addictive for a reason.”
Are we addicts? If so, should we continue or quit?
While wondering about social media, here’s something for Librarians to ponder. Library Journal recently posted an article by Aaron Schmidt. He believes that librarians need to get back to thinking about and connecting with human beings more so than with technology. To quote, ” Web technologies are tools, but we’ve been concerned with them as ends in themselves.”
I couldn’t agree more.
