When family members ask how I can blog about my thoughts for anyone to read, I just say it's
just like writing a newspaper column. It's called being a writer.
I don't like this word: influencer. It's like the difference between a editorial and advertising - tricky ;)
It's all in the sway.
Do ordinary folk really aspire to be influencers? If they did they'd write, blog, publish, twitter, etc...etc...etc...
Most folk don't even comment on blogs.
And despite the fact that the interactive calendar (Facebook) now has a population the size of the USA, I know heaps of people who are on Facebook who rarely - if ever use the account.
Most people I know think Twitter is a waste of time - media professionals included.
One friend says Twitter's just another place where people who all think alike waste time admiring themselves and each other - she was a first-adopted who opted out.
Who set up this title of "influencer"? Influencing who? Other influencers?
That little 1950s movement they call advertising spun off into marketing which created PR which resulted in spin doctoring and now ...
in the age of social media aren't individuals supposed to have a voice?
Is Influencer another name for cat herder?
TWITTER: What are you doing?
INFLUENCER: Herdin' me some twittering social media cats Ma!
It's the space race all over again - cyberspace race to the top of the social media py
ramid...
The message is the medium. Right? Well, no. Is it all about the Influencers?
Dare I ask it, but what about the "soul" of social media?... or is it just a utility?
All's this "socialnomics" media debate is about is who owns the utility and who gets to charge for its use.
So then the next big question is how do you get people to pay for it?
What's the content? Answer: Jargon. Marketing. Bit of this. Bit of that.
Even the Skin Horse could do better.
"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but
REALLY loves you, then you become real." - Margery Williams was a writer. She wrote a children's book called The Velveteen Rabbit in 1922.
Is she an "influencer"?
Writers do what most people wouldn't do in a pink fit. It seems that what social media really demands is folk, ordinary folk to speak their minds, in writing, in visual art, in music ...
They're moving, they're already doing because deep down everyone thinks of themselves as an artist in one way or another. They just don't say it out loud.
Not even his family knew Scott Newnham could sing before he landed a spot in Australian Idol:
Australian Idol also has Toby Moulton who's never sung in public before: http://www.australianidol.com.au/toby-moulton-fan-club.htm
And then there's the teenager superstar: http://yallamas.posterous.com/scribbles-powerful-music-social-media-michael
Why are people transfixed when they read a tweet from Iran or watch a video of a woman being gunned down in the street?
Because it's not only a compelling story - it's REAL!
We've lost the art of conversation. Don't argue! ;)
Social media is awakening that art. It's on the other side of the mirror.
"It (art) is like that s
mall mirror in fairy tales - you glance in it and glimpse the inaccessible where no horse or magic carpet can take you.
"And the soul cries out for it..."Alexander Solzhenitsyn s
aid.
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I think most people live their lives without speaking their truth - EVER to anyone.
This intrigue is what makes Mad Men so interesting - for me anyway.
They die without really saying what they feel or think because they are scared that they are stupid
or wrong or that God (or Golem) will strike them down.
Even worse, that they will be ignored, that that will only confirm their fear that no one really cares what they think.
And I kind of know what that's about - people read this blog but they don't comment.
Do they agree? Do they disagree? They can't be afraid of hurting my feelings ;?
It is a social network and the same rules apply online: the cool kids hang with the cool kids.
Anyway. When I started court reporting I met an old police prosecutor who was on the brink of retirement.
He told me, when I'd asked him to explain people's motivations in some case:
"T'aint nothing queerer than folk". It's what his Old Gran told him.
So the rules of pure logic dictate this line of reasoning: If you are "folk" and all folk are "queer" then "YOU are queer".
What's even more queer is the way everyone pretends they're not - maintain the silence.
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