I wouldn't be foolish enough, in the face of the new paradigm of global communications, to suggest that social media is silly, foolish, frivolous or unimportant (at least some of the time). What I will say is that we all need to slow down just a little bit and think. "Ready. Fire. Aim." is not how we want to communicate in a civilized society.
To be sure, the new model of communication allows for a far greater involvement of more people. Hopefully that results in a fuller understanding of the range of experiences people have as they engage the daily challenges of the world. The gatekeepers of public opinion no longer have the power that was once in place. Or at least the gatekeepers are no longer anointed by highly respected print publications. Case in point: You no longer need to read the New York Times to decide if you are going to purchase Broadway Show tickets. Instead, you might make that decision after searching aimlessly on the world wide web.
Still the Social Media phenomenon is anything but social. The Alpha-dogs in social media are those individuals who embraced it early and seized the day. But if you speak loudest and most, are you really engaged in a dialogue? You cannot deny the power of an amplified word-of-mouth and the thousands of anecdotal business success stories that are attributed to alternate media and shrewd use of the new channels available to anyone who has a laptop.
The good news is that we are entering an age of transparency. The curtain has been pulled back from the Wizard of Oz only to reveal an all to human from Kansas. The great an powerful wizard has spoken and, well he's only human and he's just one man trying to solve a lot of problems. There's no place like home.
