You raise some good questions, Al. I personally find digital media and communication to be exceedingly easy and convenient, but that bothers me sometimes. It's easier to avoid someone or say 'no' to something in an e-mial than on the phone or in person. The fact that our kids would rather text than call has significance as well. We miss verbal cues and facial expressions in this digital age. Just becuase something is easy doesn't mean it's the best way to do things.
I guess it all depends on your frame of reference. Ask a 50 year old and she would agree with you. Ask a 15 year old and he would disagree. Mind you ask any 15 year old anything and they will always disagree with you ;-)
Great points. This debate will no doubt run on and on. But in terms of how we name it, I'm a firm beleiver in "Digital Marketing" for two reasons:
1) I agree - its' not really "social", at least. not as we traditionally think of social
2) It's easier to get funding and corporate buy-in for a "Digital Marketing" strategy compared to a "Social Media plan". The first sounds like it could generate revenue, the latter sounds like we're just "chatting"!
In my marketing team, we've trained ourselves to talk "Digital" not "Social"
Also, thanks for all your great work with BMA last year!
@Steve: Thanks for articulating something that I've been feeling lately: the monetization of social media (or lack thereof). I read an article entitled something like "What are 900,000 'likes' really worth?" It was, of course, about Facebook, and I'm not surprised that the compnay is having a tough time translating views into dollars. The same problem cropped up during the dotcom boom. Although that doesn't explain Google's success...?
I really liked your post. You have highlighted very valid points in terms of where the young people are heading with their 'key tapping' socialisation sessions.
I just wanted to express my opinion on the professional life side of things you have talked about.
I don't think the key tapping teenagers will necessarily suffer in terms of employment considering the new trends in how people work these days. Nowadays, people are able to get employed and earn a living without even meeting their employers face to face. There are many jobs that are performed online from the comfort of one's home. The only thing one needs to do to keep such jobs is to deliver up to the expected standard and on time. Nobody expects you to be an interactive individual, the employer does not care how you look, how you talk and whether you are a sociable person or not. I am sure in the future with the increasing number of such jobs, many of the unsociable teenagers of today will be able to earn a living by remaining chained to their computer desks.
However, the need for people who have social and communication skills will always be sought after. Given the trends you have mentioned, supply for such people will not be much and hence their value will be higher. This is why the sociable teenagers of today will truly excel. Such people will be the drivers and the brains of businesses in the future. They will be the decision makers and the ones who run the big shows in business. No matter how the technology transfers the world we live in, the physical handshake will always remain as the ultimate deal maker. Mutual trust is not something you can easily build online or purely digitally. Human interaction is essential for that.
Speaking of social media and children, a father recently admitted in a blog that he let his children down by allowing them to join Facebook before they were 13. I found the story interesting, though, I have to confess the most interesting part was when the father asked his now 14 years old daughter about being on Facebook:
Here's the exchange:
I ask my younger daughter, Riley, 14, for her thoughts on keeping pre-teens off Facebook.
"I don't think anybody should use Facebook," Riley, a high-school freshman, said. All you really do is sit there, she explains, and look at things that other people are doing.
What? Why do you use it then?
"I'd be weird if I didn't use it," she said, "because everybody uses it."
One of the dangers that I perceive with social media is the ease with which people are willing to provide important personal information. People quickly lose sight of the fact that it is not a private medium for communication.
With reagard to sociability....I find that there can be a big difference in the way I interact in person versus by eMedia. Texting and e-mail tends to give us a distance, and sometimes a sense of anonimity, that tends to reduce our social graces.
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