You must think you’re something special, don’t ya?
Inspired by posts from David Spinks - These views are my own and Lisa Barone – When Social Media Becomes A Weapon, I’ve come to the conclusion that social media is beginning to incorporate the old saying – with the good comes the bad. Don’t get me wrong, I have a strong passion for social media and communications; however, as social media continues to be trendy, we’re starting to see the ugly side of the beast.
What’s the ugly side that I speak about? Ego and ignorance.
* Please note: I don’t think David or Lisa are egotistical. Their posts simply got me thinking – that’s what smart posts are suppose to do. David and I have interacted and I think highly of him. I’m new to Lisa’s blog, but from browsing around, I think it’s one I’ll enjoy reading.
As I posted of Lisa’s blog, I think consumers are walking around with a sense of entitlement. This goes a lot deeper than social media, but our desire to always be connected has given us this false sense of “I’m the most important person and you need to serve me”. We thrive off real-time conversation, we’re in a race to be the first to break a story and we want an incredible amount of information quickly and accurately. But are we asking too much?
This false sense of thinking has created a “I’ll show them” attitude where we instantly jump online to broadcast every interaction we have. I understand the desire to share your unpleasant experiences – there are instances where social media is the right outlet. However, I think we’re overreacting and turning the simplest interaction into a bigger story than it is. There are certain situations where I think broadcasting your story is relevant – Crocs v. Mommy Blogger, but do we really need to know that you had to wait in line for 30 minutes or that the salesperson was rude? Probably not.
Why is this happening?
With everything that’s popular, people want to ride the wave and be the biggest and coolest. We all want to be innovators, we all want to be trendsetters. We all want our 15 minutes of fame. What better platform than social media to broadcast. We all want to be the next Chris Brogan, we all want our blogs to get thousands of hits a day. But are you going about this drive the wrong way? We don’t like to wait, we want instant results. It’s this lack of patience that’s spurred our desire to search for the easy way to create buzz.
We all want our voices to be heard, yet we fail to sit back and listen. Just as social media has created the race to be first, it’s also created a race to become “the best” or “the expert”. I’m all for social media, but we need to scale back our exhibitionism. Maybe it’s time to start to reverse the trend and become a little less exposed?
Look, I have no problem with you broadcasting your voice. I thrive on the desire to connect and build a community. Deep down, I too have that desire to be noticed and recognized. The speed in which technology is advancing is great, but maybe it’s evolving too quickly. The way in which we communicate is changing and it’s crucial to stay up to date, but is this really a good thing? Are we better off without the ability to communicate in real-time? Had Facebook and Twitter not been created, would we better off? Is this race to connect ultimately going to lead to a society that’s not connected?
Take a step back. You’re not that important. Your voice doesn’t need to be heard all the time. Quit focusing on the bad and start enjoying life.
