Social Media

Abstract
We can sum up Social Media in two words, “connect us”. It is not that people before, did not want to connect; but it is the way this all happen. It has been the perfect storm of circumstances, 1. Millennials, a generation that needs constant feedback and 2. The interactive web applications of the past 6 years that allowed it. Those colliding of forces created a new meaning for the phrase “in the world together”.

Treatment
The cloud, the web, the collective, a few terms to start; Web 2.0 is the term now. Its impact has been enormous, why? Millennials. Unlike generations before, they need to be connected. Who would guest the impact they would have on the nation or the world for that matter. I think Morley Winograd and Michael Hais spoke so profoundly in their book Millennial Makeover. " Millennials are unlike the Gen- Xers before them. They are civic minded and really value the opinions of their peers” If hindsight is 20/20 the rise of Social Media tools should be easy to understand with that in mind.

Talking with a student the other day, I asked the question, “Why Facebook?, why so much time on this site?” He told me he just wanted someone to connect with and talk to. I asked him why not Myspace(we so kindly do not mention anymore). He said FaceBook is about connections and easy, but Myspace in his opinion was about self-expression and cumbersome to use, again we just want to connect. I got quiet, real quiet. Being a boomer myself, I realized that I considered myself a “people person” that is we boomers like to meet people, create alliances and get things done through the notion of goals. Millennials see themselves as “people people”, to make a opposite pun. They meet people to connect and experience just for being people. “People people” need a different kind of Web, not the static web of the 90's, but a Web 2.0.

The video on Delicous really brought another point home about the power of Social Media, sharing. Delicious is quite an ingenious tool. It insightfully allows you to store your bookmarks and write comments, so they can be easily retrieved for future use. This is very useful and smart to tag sites this way. These bookmarks can be sent to anyone to share. If Delicious is about sharing your bookmarks, semantically we may be sharing our thoughts. I believe being connected is all about that.

Conclusion
Social Media can help us connect and perhaps inform us simultaneously. For most of us the daily pressure can dust over the desire to see the world for what it should be. It’s not about wires, computers or smart phones; it is about the most basic thing that can be found in the use of the old party line telephones of the 60’s, the connection.



Millennials: Social Media Rockstars

Social bookmarking 
http://www.commoncraft.com/bookmarking-plain-english

Millenial Makeover 
http://odeo.com/episodes/23081457-Millenial-Makeover-by-Morley-Winograd-and-Michael-D-Hais> 

The Social Habit: Who Uses Social Media and How
http://www.pamorama.net/2010/06/22/the-social-habit-who-uses-social-media-and-how/#ixzz1FDP4aHx9