"Old" Social Media

Recently, I spoke to about 35 members of a local chapter of the American Association of University Women. Our topic of conversation was the impact of social media on education and the American culture. It is an important and broad topic, of course, and, not surprisingly, one on which we were only able to skim the surface in the hour or so we were together. Everyone at this meeting, except me, was retired after spending much of their professional lives in education. Nevertheless, all were deeply interested in the social media revolution. How best could they tap into social media in order to communicate more effectively with their own friends and family members as well as with other organizations was probably the most overriding question the group had. It is the right question to ask.

I am not sure how much longer social media will maintain its current top spot position as the best way to reach out to others. In these times when it is becoming increasingly difficult to find someone - anyone - who is not using some form of social media, the group's question strikes me as being more and more germane to our efforts to connect with others. Even though social media remains a new form of communication, its great popularity is making effective use of it more challenging. For instance, if nearly 150,000 million people in the United States blog, according to Newsweek, then how does one go about distinguishing their blog from so many others? With the number of Facebook users even higher, then posting announcements in the hope they will be noticed and acted upon becomes just as daunting. In other words, even though social media is new, it seems to have gotten old quickly.

This is not to say those who blog and utilize Facebook to reach out to others are wasting their time. I do not believe they are. At the same time, users of these and other forms of social media would be wise to lower their expectations if they view them as being sure fire ways to connect with others and generate some type of response. This also suggests that all of us will need to continue searching for new communication tools and strategies to utilize. I wish I was wise or creative enough to suggest what they might be. But at some point maybe we will find ourselves reverting back to old fashioned tools such as phone calls or face-to-face interactions. This, in essence, was my ultimate response to the overriding question posed by those members of the AAUW. All of us, I believe, should continue exploring better ways to social media, but we need to remember this particular tool is not the only one in the tool box.