You’ve probably never heard of Bulletin Board System
(BBS), or CompuServe; these were arguably the social
media of the pre-internet era. AOL (America Online) is what most people
however regard as the precursor to today’s social networking sites. Some even call
it the internet before the internet.
Although the history of internet can be traced back to
the late 1960’s, the World
Wide Web came in 1990, but it was not until 1993 that it became accessible
to basically everyone around the world.
From the highly successful Classmates.com and the not so
successful SixDegrees.com, Hi5, BlackPlanet, down to the Facebook, LinkedIn and
Twitter era, the social media world has evolved to become integral part of our
everyday lives, and we now celebrate it as one of the greatest gifts technology has given us.
Social Media Week (SMW), which takes place twice a year
worldwide, explores the social, cultural and economic impact of social media.
Founded by Toby Daniels, CEO of Crowdcentric, SMW is
arguably the largest social media event in the world. Cities of the world where
strong local organizers can be gotten are chosen to host each event. Lagos,
Nigeria has been chosen as one of the eight cities in the world to host the
event this year.
The global theme for the event in 2014 is ‘The Future of
Now: Always On, Always Connected.’ The first event of 2014 will hold from
February 17 – 21.
This year’s team borders around some of those things we’d
easily pick out as the ills or disadvantages of social media and how it has
destroyed some social structures in our society.
It has reduced productivity and has led to loss of
billions of dollars for many companies. Morse claimed that British companies
lost 2.2 billion a year to the social phenomenon and Nucleus Research reported
that Facebook shaves 1.5% off office productivity. These two studies posted by
Wired.com highlight one of the effects of social media.
“How can we balance and preserve humanness — meaning the
ability to listen, empathize, engage, focus and be present in the moment —
despite the constant disruption that technology enables?” The question was
posed on the SMW website with a promise to discuss it at the event.
Several other topics to be discussed will address
virtually everything we’d identify as the ills of social media, with posers
like; ‘What does it mean to be “more human” in an age of digital technology?’,
‘How can we find and embrace the technologies that lead us to have more time
and focus, not less?’, ‘How can we facilitate meaningful conversations, practices
for devoting time to creative thinking and mindful contemplation, and
automation of technologies that create more time for you?’, etc.
Social media has made us more aware of the world we live
in. It has also driven campaigns and spread news faster than any medium has
ever done. The world can now know about breaking news in seconds, while media
houses can grow faster with their social media activity.
This medium has also become a learning hub. People engage
in intellectual discussions, tutorials, interviews and research via social
media platforms.
Perhaps the industry to have fully harnessed the
potentials of social media is the marketing industry. Several
e-marketing/e-payment solutions have used the social media to push their
brands. We now have folks whose day job is social media marketing, and believe
me, they are doing fine.
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