We don’t have social media. We have social distribution of legacy media.
Back in the dark ages, bloggers were divided into linkers and thinkers (here’s USS Clueless from 2002).
- Linkers linked to other people’s stuff …
- Thinkers created stuff by writing about it …
Tom Foremski thinks the linkers have won. I tend to agree.
Blogging is still the platform of choice for thinkers. But blogs are no longer de rigeur.
Most of what we see these days is linking.
Twitter is mostly social. About the only way to make it social media is to use linking.
Facebook has more ability to go beyond social to social media … but has been most widely adopted by people who don’t create broadly interesting content … you know … linkers.
I’m not necessarily saying this is a bad thing — I do a fair amount of linking myself.
I don’t have a rub with the legacy media either … but it’s becoming clearer that social distribution of legacy media through Twitter and Facebook is the best thing that’s happened to legacy media since cable TV.
