I've long found that posting in irritation can get me into trouble, so I've sat on this post for most of the week. But really, I've had enough now. The social media backlash is in full swing, and, frankly, if you didn't see this coming, you haven't been paying attention.
It started with linkbait expert Techcrunch poster Paul Carr shutting down his social media presence, but really gained momentum when Leo Laporte of the TWiT network realising that the majority of his microblogging activity was having no significant impact whatsoever.
Inevitably, most web tech is built by (surprise!) technologists, who are themselves often attracted to shiny new things over the established things of the past. That cadre of bloggers-turned-social media gurus who once sold us on the virtues of blogging have been flitting from service to service in search of the next big thing that they can evangelise. But increasingly, they've been wrong about the coming success stories. From FriendFeed (sold to Facebook, largely abandoned) to Google Wave, they've been trying to tempt us to follow them to the New Thing and abandon the Old Thing. And most people haven't obliged.
Indeed, as Alan points out, pretty much what these "leading voices" are doing is reflecting what less obsessive neophiles have been doing since the start: building on the existing utility of older services, rather than replacing the old with the new. And even then, people will only use those services that they see a clear, simple value in. FriendFeed and Wave were geek tools, not ones that would see mainstream adoption. And a good proportion of those web neophiles have no antenna at all when it comes to sensing what the mainstream will enjoy.
My job pretty much comes down to looking at all the new, shiny stuff on the internet, and figuring out how we can use it to garner traffic (or, more often, the right traffic), and then use that to make some money. In my experience, new social media tends to be additive rather than replacing what went before. We're still making active and successful use of forums, which are prehistoric in web terms, and, in some markets, blogging is just hitting its stride, despite the fact that those social media superstars were declaring it passé two years ago.... Successful new services rarely replace older one, they just push them into a smaller niche.
Now, there's no doubt that service like Twitter are important to many of us. A recent chat with Suw and Kevin suggested that they are seeing the same thing that I am: really significant traffic spikes come from Twitter these days, rather than a link from another blog. But, in the end, the same thing that makes Twitter so accessible - short posts, easy to access - is what limits is value. Followers are an easy and gratifying measure of success - but they don't necessarily translate into influence or any form of audience. And for those of us with a strong impulse to express ourselves at greater length, it can be a greater feeder for our blogs, rather than something that replaces them.
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Indeed, much to my surprise, one thing I genuinely though was being replaced by Twitter - my RSS reader - has suddenly taken on a new life since I got hold of an iPad. NewsRack, the feed reader I use (right), is the application I use most on the device. If my iPad is to hand, I'm flicking through feeds throughout the day. As a result, I've found myself reading and commenting on blogs more than I have done in years.
In life, there's room for long, in-depth conversations, and short chats. Scribbled notes and novels both have their place in life, as do lectures and and quick demos. Anyone who seriously through that the short-form, restricted discourse of the microblogging and social network service would become the only form of online discussion that mattered clearly hadn't spent enough time looking at the way people actually behave.
Thanks to Nancy Williams for some banter on Twitter which helped me crystallise my thoughts on this. She's published her own take on the issue.
Agree re:Twitter and blogs - in fact have a post scheduled for tomorrow saying similar things. Blogs are in a revival for me and I think it's the iPad which is driving it. I'm actually using instapaper properly now instead of having loads of tabs open in firefox (which wasn't great for transferring bt devices) and reading longer deeper articles. It's all feeling a bit 2006!
Good post. Interesting read. Reassuring. Agreed on emphasising how blogging still remains important alongside Twitter and Facebook.
In fact ... You appear to have blogged everything i was hoping to blog which is ... In some respects great and in other respects annoying ;)
Largely agreed. I have always maintained that content is way more important than technology.
In fact my general attitude is that until technology becomes mainstream, I have no interest in it. Google Wave was obviously never going to work for significant group of people.
Now everyone is writing about Four Square which is such a red herring and allows the negatives the chance to write it all off as egotistical noise.
Absolutely agree about RSS. RSS has always been the key. It runs everything for me. If it's still all about the conversations - RSS provides the topics of conversation.
And blog, blog, blog. Like I said, it's about content.
Good post, Adam. I guess the whole process of new platforms/applications that come and go reflects the state we are in . . . technology powering huge change. And in that we are all finding what works for us and our networks - and because it is social we are all talking about it and making sense of it as we go. I also agree about RSS and I like Twitter for link sharing and the ability to organise conversations/topics you want to follow and join in.
That's happened to me too often down the years. It's nice to be on the other side of it for once. :-)