Who’s Afraid of Social Media?

Judging by last week’s news that there are now 2 billion people worldwide with Internet access and that Facebook has 500 million members, the question, “Who’s afraid of Social Media?”, seems to answer itself.

Of course, there are those who still do not have Internet access, let alone enough food or a roof over their heads, so they don’t know about the social media revolution. There are others who have missed the quantum developments in personal and business digital communication for any number of reasons – age, desire, fear, tradition, etc. There are the neo-Luddites who are opposed for their own spiritual, philosophical or just plain oppositional reasons, just as their predecessors tried to hold back the tide of the industrial revolution.

You may even ask yourself, “If I am happy with my life as it is and I get all the information I need from my trusted sources, why should I spend my valuable time on nefarious activities like, Facebook, Twitter, etc?”

Future generations won’t have the option to ask that question. Even if you get all your information from a newspaper, buy your airline tickets from a travel agent, or find your bargains in the Penny Saver mailer? These will not survive in the long run. You will have to be digital or distant. Then again, the holdouts will probably die out, those left behind will have to catch up and become a part of in the digital universe.

Catching up isn’t too hard - keeping up is the issue. Just try and stay up with the almost daily changes to Facebook, the constellation of new apps, sifting through the ones that were hip yesterday but passé today, or know the latest and best tools with which to advertise or make purchases. It’s a daily dose of overload that can make one feel inept. But if I feel inept at times, perhaps I am not alone? Maybe...

Maybe the digital revolution is the closest we get to democracy. Sure, we don’t control the servers, or have full access to all information. But we do have the opportunity to manipulate, improve and use the system to connect with each other without being filtered. Just ask the protestors in Tunisia and Egypt. Whatever their motivations, whatever the outcomes of the uprisings, these movements came together because of the power of social media.

I heard recently that there are 70 Billion minutes per month spent on Facebook. 70 Billion! That is more than all of the Google, Yahoo and Microsoft-related websites combined.

So it doesn’t matter how much you know or don’t know about this thing called Social Media. Just know that it exists and it’s not going away. More and more, it will be how you find out about most things in the world. If you have a business and you aren’t on Facebook, well, you’re crazy. It really is nothing to be afraid of - and there’s always someone here to help.