The Letters Say It All

Inspired by a TED presentation from John Maeda and remembering how he came to see the letters "MIT" in the words "complexity" and "simplicity," I came to the thought that it's no wonder social media has attracted so many shameless self-promoters.

The words themselves contain two "I's" and a "me."

This also reminds me of three interesting posts I've come across in the last two weeks:

Who Isn't A New Media Strategist? - by Mitch Joel, Six Pixels of Separation

Crystal Gazification: SoMe Thoughts - by Sam Ismail, An International Smoothie

Is social media the same as marketing? - by Beth Harte, The Harte of Marketing

Update:Thanks to the link in the comment from Robin, I've now come across these related and thought provoking posts:

Information and Social Media - by Mark Earls, Herd - the hidden truth about who we are

'The Common Sense Sociology' - by Daria Radota Rasmussen, Social Hallucinations

Comments

[Scott Crawford, son to Rowan + DoJean, keeper of small dreams, @crawfordbrnd]

So true, Paul. As Google rose on the wings of a noble mission to organize the world's information, social media (twitter in particular) has the potential to soar on the revolution of egalitarian networking – the open sharing of the world's knowledge.

It does, that is, if we don't scare people away or make them think it's all one big ego feeding frenzy. I know I sound like a cranky old curmudgeon. Hell, I may very well qualify. But, please, let's not kill the joy of social media by making it all about power ratings. It's not.

[Robin Grant]

Hey Paul - this might cheer you up:
http://wearesocial.net/blog/2009/01/social-media-media-social/

[Sam]

Hey Paul,

Thanks for the shoutout (although I'm post is the least valuable!).

The generosity of spirit that others have shown a punk kid with a big mouth is the only reason I'm where I am today.

The joy of living in the time we do is being able to glean from people so diverse and inspiring that sometimes it's a little surreal.

The self promoters will eventually destroy themselves, it's up to us all to prevent ourselves and our peers from falling prey to the same trap.

[Josh]

Couldn't agree more. Social has such awesome potential, but the amount of self-promotion is gross.

I think we the community are a bit to blame. Why do we keep following those people on Twitter? Or keep reading their blogs? We perpetuate the cycle by not un-friending and ignoring the ego-maniacs.