Social Media End of Year Report

This is a record of how I'm using Media at the end of 2010. It's a snapshot, and in all likelihood not representative anyone but me.

I use Flickr

I love Flickr deep in my bones, though truthfully I have not been using it nearly as much as I did a few years ago. Partly this is the evolution of a former employee (who sees the imperfections more acutely), but partly it feels like some of the vibrancy that propelled the community along-- for me-- has gone elsewhere. I haven't found any particularly good alternative to Flickr, though I have been watching this now-frothy space in startupland try and fill the void for many customers (Instagram, Yfrog, Plixy, Dailybooth, et al.).

I use Facebook

Mostly to log into other sites on the internet. Were it not for this feature I don't think I would neeed to use facebook ever. I mostly hear from acquaintances there.


Gosh, I still use Email

Email is still the grandaddy of them all, right? Though I hate email in the workplace, I find it perfectly reasonable for my everyday life, friends and professional contacts.


I use Quora

Though I believe it has a just as much ego/voyerism at play as any other social network, this one makes us all feel like reference librarians. And it's immaculately designed, probably representing the cutting edge of social applications and web design in 2010.


And then there's Twitter

Which i feel ambivalent about. It is a significant evolutionary step in how people express themselves and communicate in public, but it also seems to contribute to our self-promotional instincts and our shrinking ability to live in the moment (the Times had a nice little feature on this).

There are other social networks that I tinker with, including this blog.

What does this mean going forward (for me)?
I think that rather than a winner-take-all race between Facebook, Twitter, Google, Apple and other relevant an interested players, I sense that we're heading toward more diversified small communities. Quora, for example, isn't going to OWN question and answer experiences on the web, but it will for some segment of them.

I'm hitting some sort of fatigue with an increasing number or social networks, but the result isn't that I consolidate my experience with one company. It's that I'm increasingly discerning about which ones I start up with and will continue to use.

What does this mean going forward (for the nation and the world)
This is where us social-media enthusiasts should take a look in the mirror, re-watch the Rally for Sanity, and accept our own role in the disfunction of our national dialogue. Social media, for all it's self-promoted potential for changing the world, holds just as great a potential to make us vacuous.

For example, is Twitter meaningfully contributing our to national dialogue on the War in Afghanistan? Does Quora drive policymakers to think constructively about the climate change? In a bygone age, this is what media could do. I challenge us all to work towards a more impactful media-verse in the new year.