It's been about a decade since I first started using the Internet. I embrace it, I benefit from it, I take advantage of it... but it's still overwhelming. This new ocean of much-saturated information... populated with millions of so-called experts... navigating through all the hype, spin, and everything-realtime... well, it will probably always be this way.
I'll never forget the day when Dad first had our family signed up for an AOL account. When looking back at the communications schematic now, I feel as Alexander Graham Bell must have felt later about smoke signals after the first phone transmissions. Our family couldn't even be on the landline telephone (all there really was then) because AOL was monopolizing the lines coming into our home.
It's incredible to reflect on how much has happened and changed since then. Today our heads are almost a mere extension of this Internet that truly drives the brain of the world.
Two pretty smart and savvy tech guys from O'Reilly Radar also seem to be taking a step back to reflect too.
Check out Scott Berkun's post about "Calling Bullshit on Social Media," and then Joshua-Michéle Ross's rebuttal, "In Defense of Social Media."
The way our world keeps growing and accelerating and gyrating, who knows if we'll ever truly figure this new age of "social media" out.
