DISQUS

chantelle oliver · 1 year ago

"...a level playing field for everyone within our world by utilizing the Internet as the method by which people can talk with others regardless of economic, gender or geographical differences and achieve change within our society...."

This is the most amusing thing I've read all day and I thank you for it.

I, for one, don't want change in society and I am sick to death of all the poor black Senegalese women monopolizing the socialnets and tech blogs. Let's have way less egalitarianism online and give it all back to the white men. They need not sacrifice any longer.

Oh wait! Gender, class and race are internalized (Franz Fanon, Mashable? Anyone). We can't leave them at the the digital borders because we re-inscribe our social selves with every socially contextualized click of the key.
Yours is a dangerous, oppressive perspective. Please let it go.

Steven Hodson · 1 year ago

Chantelle,

o where did I suggest that social change had anything to do with Senegalese women. If you knew of my writing either here or on my home blog (http://www.winextra.com) or heard me on any of the Elite Tech News podcasts you would know that I continually suggest that we need to deal with our own homelessness, technological divide and ideally I would prefer that this was the society that was changed.

and how does treating anyone equally mean leaving our personal class or race at the door. The idea of social media - or so the warm and fuzzy crowd like to suggest - is that we don't have to leave anything at the digital borders as you put it and yet we can still be on an equal footing.

Until you know me better please do not assume that you know my perspective because of one article only.

chantelle oliver · 1 year ago

I truly hope Senegalese women are a part of social change for you! Our responsibility, as the benefactors (continually) of colonialism is to not pretend that communication technologies can erase centuries of social practice. Did the telegraph? The telephone? The television?

Here's a really crucial idea for you: your attempt/belief to treat people equally and utopianism about how easy it is to be on equal footing functions to serve you. I know your perspective perfectly because that is the metanarrative of our western post-colonial society. Your argument falls into perfect alignment with it. You believe in democracy but have no understanding of egalitarianism or whiteness. Have you read Roedigger? Fanon? Laura-Ann Stoler? Spivak? Go, read, reflect then we can have a meaningful discussion on race, gender, class and privilege.

Kelly · 1 year ago

What a great article! My experience as an early adopter and a company social mediaist is I am first an early adopter and then use the experience I’ve gained to help my employer navigate and participate authentically and genuinely in social networks. Make sense?

Steven Hodson · 1 year ago

yes it made sense and how is it working out for your company?

Paul Worsham · 1 year ago

Coincidentally, I blogged earlier on CSO about "Facebook Disconnect? Connecting to the social ROI", which included a possible influence on use of social sites when corporate workplaces (among others) selectively block some social networks.

So in a sense, workplace adoption implies that these corporations won't still be blocking access to the sites by their employees.

Corporations are also being led by smaller companies into social media, as these smaller outfits are getting attention in an effective and enviable way.

Kurt Henninger · 1 year ago

No way big corporations lead the charge into social media. That is one of the great things about social media, you have to be authentic or else. Large corporations have a definite self-centeredness to them that shows alot of times when they try to delve too deep into social media.

justin hunt · 1 year ago

I thought the comments on corporates was really interesting. We are working with a large number of corporates on social media activities. There are intelligent people in these organisations. They want to take it slowly as they don't want to get it wrong. Many are worried about engaging because they don't want to be clunky or come across as Big Brother-ish. Another issue is resource. If and when they start who is going to handle the feedback and the comments. Another issue is firewalls. So many communications executives cannot see or read blogs or social networks because they are blocked by ancient firewall policies.
The areas of interest from corporates at the moment are monitoring so they can follow conversations; identifying which are the most influential blogs in their space and then they are starting to look at what applications could help them get across their views maybe blogs or maybe online forums where they can lead a debate and influence the networks around them. Corporates will get involved and shape social media. They have to. They just cannot ignore it and I think on a personal level it appeals to them because it is a chance to be more creative and it humanises the business and they can develop more personal relationships which is what they crave for. I'd be really interested to hear other people's views.

CourtneyCJ · 1 year ago

As someone who does PR at a large university, I can tell you many communicators would like to use social media more (communicator social network MyRagan was founded on this basis), but often the people in the corner offices upstairs, and IT departments, shy away from adopting new media. They are afraid of giving the power to anonymous commenters or they are just afraid of the technology in general. The IT departments say there are too many safety risks associated.
We started a MySpace page and Facebook group last year, and they were immediately shut down because the administration got upset about the kinds of things our online friends (students attending our school) have on their profiles--profanity, drinking photos, etc. They didn't want to be associated with those kinds of people, even though they admit them and we are a top-10 school.
The communicators are trying, but the old model is having a hard time dying hard.

Carlos Hernandez · 1 year ago

My sense is that the people are doing the pushing, but moreover corporations by definition do not possess the chutzpah let alone wisdom to be pullers.

modemlooper · 1 year ago

I have done loads of social marketing projects for old corporations who've been doing the tv, magazine, one way message thing for so long they just freak over the thought of actually having to respond to their consumers desires.

It's the developers and users who are creating the social media push not corporations they are just trying to figure out how to do old media in this space. They will learn it doesn't work. They will learn its better to come out and play than to hide. People respect you when your real.

alisa leonard · 1 year ago

Steve, sadly, social media is not exactly nascent territory for a lot of corporations...(sadly because i already miss the wild west days)...companies are already assembling social media teams and in fact, the role of CMO itself is evolving into one with a foundation in social technologies and their impact on the evolution of communications.

Zayne S Halsall · 1 year ago

While this post seems rather interesting, I'm afraid I just could not bring myself to get through it.

Am I the only one who felt lost on the neverending trail of words without any breather in between combining clauses into sentences that were longer than they needed to be and with no end in sight I just had to call it quits for the sake of my very sanity please stop please please please no more I can't take it anymore!?!