Social Networking and Social Media are nothing new

This is a re-post of an “old” blog from the blog of the start up I co-own. I just thought that it should go here too and it works as a nice way to get people who read this blog to get them over to this blog. So go ahead and fall for my ruse and clickity click here.

Right now I’m sitting at my computer working on stuff for RoyalAnts. My laptop is in my living room facing towards the TV which is playing KungFu Hustle (which is on Spike at the moment) and I have my receiver switched to AUX where I have my media server (which is hooked up to my TV and surround sound) playing my mp3’s on random. I’m sitting here and I can’t help but be amazed at the technology that surrounds us on a daily basis and we just completely take it for granted because we are just used to it.

When I was a kid I couldn’t fathom a computer as small as my laptop, I would never have thought of using my computer on my TV and watching movies by playing a file instead of using some physical media was just plain preposterous. That’s not to say that I didn’t do this type of thing when I was a kid, I just went about it differently. I used to turn on my parents record player (then later the cassette and after that the cd player) then turn off the sound to the TV and watch tv shows, commercials, infomercials, movies and anything else with my very own soundtrack. That’s how I used to play my Atari, original NES, and later computer games as well. I have long used this means of visual
audio combination as a tool to help me create. It gives me something to look at that isn’t what ever I’ve been obsessing over for the last several hours yet doesn’t completely distract me, and I always look forward to those neat little moments where what’s on TV matched up so well with the song I was listening to at the time.

But what does this have to do with RoyalAnts? What does this have to do with you and
me and the rest of the world? What does this have to do with Social Media? Well it’s the same age old answer that grandparents and philosophers alike love to throw about, and that answer is everything
and nothing. On the superficial level it means nothing. It’s just me talking about under what conditions I like to create. There’s nothing wrong with that, other bloggers do it all the time. But lets look at the first part of that answer, the everything part.

I shared a story about how I have been doing the exact same thing that I have done since i was a kid and as new technology came about I just adapted and found newer, easier, and more interactive ways of doing it. This to me is a metaphor for social networking. When we were kids and all the way on up through young adults we had a mandatory way of networking in the form of schools. Meeting people with similar interests, learning from them, exchanging ideas, stories, and media (through cassettes, dvds, books, etc).

College was a bit less in the area of entertainment and a bit more in the area of professional interests but we still did the same thing. We sought out people of like interests and shared media (content) with them (who then became our friends) and they exposed us to new stuff and new people and on and on the cycle went.

I guess when you boil it all down what I’m trying to say is that social networking (even social media) isn’t anything new at all, it’s just the next step in how humans connect. For the skeptics out there who say it’s a fad, for the businesses who don’t want to see the value in it, and for those who are stubbornly refusing to “jump on the band wagon” I say quit dragging your heels. This isn’t something new, it’s just a new way of doing the same thing we’ve been doing since we climbed out of the primordial ooze and started making guttural noises at each other. We’re finding new ways of connecting.

Josh “Shua” Peters

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