Over the course of the day I will be left with several “themes” via Twitter. These range from the typical, “Wow, look at everyone using localtweeps.com, I wonder if that will ever take off?” -or- the “Man, how many people are really thinking that Google is going to acquire Twitter?“
From the mundane to the extraordinary (relatively), Twitter picks up and loves to populate certain topics (hey, you knew there had to be a reason those digg.com guys have done so well). Today’s topic circled around the frustration with a few of my favorite online hangouts:
So, a few (mounting) instances of user distraught.
Nothing crazy, eye-popping or earth shattering by any extent of the imagination. But the consistency and pacing of these messages seemed to happen endlessly throughout the day (the aforementioned being a select few).
I know it’s how I found myself stumbling around with the seemingly perpetual thought of, “Oh my god, we’re making money off something we have no control over!” and the “All my information I save online is going to one day disappear!”. PANIC!
Yes, I went straight apocalyptic in my brain today; the death of the Internet played out with vivid recourse.
My goal here is not to incite fear, or venture to say that anyone has been thinking/doing it wrong. Frankly, saving media online is the case study on how to most safely harbor, maintain and share information, ever (that’s like forever, ever; sometime before 1985 is when time began I believe, but I digress). Your stuff is safe, just read up on “cloud computing” (thanks to @mattsingley for highlighting that thought).
I want to get to the heart of this issue without denying relevance to our work. We are working inside a medium that we do not always control. Publishing a video on YouTube, posting a Page on Facebook, maintaing contacts and conversation on Twitter all could end tomorrow, leaving us no recourse to justify an investment of any kind. Facebook “went down” today for two hours; what was the value-loss of that standard maintenance to say the Dell Consumer Page?
My point being is that we still have questions; as do all forms of free-services and many advertising mediums. The contract we enter with “Social Media” sites is based solely on the pretense that the service is a universal and fully functioning vehicle, but what happens when that vehicle breaks or needs repair, or worse yet, goes out of business?
These are the questions we still grapple with everyday. We’ve only begun to start answering, hell, we’ve only begun asking pointed, smart questions about “new media” and its offshoots. The answers we have postulated are undoubtedly wrong in most instances, so we will all discover a patience as we trudge through the very necessary trial and error.
And yes, there are hundreds upon thousands of people working tirelessly everyday to ensure that our information is safe and protected for the ages (Google “Google” and read down 2 pages).
I remember my first defense for contributing on Twitter. I was thinking how cool it would have been to read the thoughts of people who came before me (maybe the jobless advertiser during the Great Depression, or Paul Newman’s days before landing his first acting gig, or my great-great grandfather’s first trip to America) in stark transparency. These were the stories that could have been saved in the tomes of a server rack somewhere in Des Moines, IA or Austin, TX given the technology. Think about the leave behind; I think the awesomeness, absoluteness and beauty of the reward far outweighs all of the risk.
Peace.
mjb
