A Balanced Assessment of the Criticisms of Engaging Social Media:
Determining the advantages and disadvantages of particular activities for people and organizations is an important task. Why else would education, books, think tanks, and presidential debates exist. I thought fleshing out my personal experience with the advantages and disadvantages might be instructive in determining “the truth” about social media, web 2.0, and blogging technologies.
Advantages of Social Media
• Democratization of media.
• Relationships and conversation.
• Creativity and re-mix culture.
• Embrace your passion and identity.
• Community, sharing, and connecting.
• Increase transparency in government and organizations.
Criticisms of Social Media
• Lots of great content still gets overlooked. Current lack of good filters creates problems finding the best content.
• Writers have problems delivering content consistently.
• Anonymity can engender polarization and hate.
• Information overload and social networking overload.
• Work/Life balance is hard to achieve.
As society and technology moves forward we stand at a watershed moment and history, so it is vitally necessary to stop and think about our societal trajectory. Thoughts? Did I miss an advantage or disadvantage?
How you can learn more or learn how to make your corporate blogging efforts more strategic and productive:
If you liked this post you might be interested in a more comprehensive criticism of social media which suggests that its a little early to drink the social media and web 2.0. Alternatively, if you want to strategically blog or productively use social media and web 2.0 tools which addresses many of these concerns, you should check here. Finally, the problems with the traditional social media agency.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media Part II: The Risk of a Web 2.0 Bubble
This presentation by Dave in January of 2008 outlines the economics and cultural stresses which might cause one to be wary of the web 2.0 wave, and as a very astute venture capital investor he ultimately concludes with a happy future for the world of Web 2.0:
(image credit: pikkus)
8 responses so far ↓
Jon Henshaw // February 1, 2008 at 11:51 am |
Your last point, “Work/Life balance is hard to achieve,” is really true. I barely have enough time to do my work and spend time with my family, let alone participate in the blogosphere and social networking world. To really make an impact and to participate well, you either have to have a lot of time on your hands and/or be a full-time social media participant.
compassioninpolitics // February 2, 2008 at 6:00 am |
I agree work/life is huge. Its certainly a question that I’ve had since I’ve begun blogging. I think long term that it leads to better participation too, because I find that when I go beyond my boundaries, I tend to end up in burn and burst cycles.
I think in a case where people come together and collaborate, they can generate more collective traffic. For instance, while maintain separate blogs that feed into one main aggregator of 5-10 nonprofits or real estate agents in different locations or with the same company can create bigger buzz.
Second, i think interviews, guest posts on industry standard blogs, and blogger relations are huge.
Thats why I think podcasters and videobloggers are at a slight advantage in the sense that they can deliver one great poduct once a week and still generate decent traction.
Linked In Answers: What are the most important web analytics to track (for Return on Investment or ROI)? « Compassion in Politics // May 10, 2008 at 12:24 am |
[...] 10, 2008 · No Comments With the emergence of Web 2.0 and social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and the explosion in corporate blogging, web analytics and Return [...]
Samantha Power: Outlining the Disadvantages of Living in Web 2.0 World « Compassion in Politics // May 25, 2008 at 8:38 pm |
[...] out this post, for more a more robust explanation of the advantages and disadvantages of web 2.0 for personal and professional [...]
Social Media Rush // October 8, 2008 at 10:18 am |
[...] media has advantages and disadvantages yet they vary depending on a person’s perspective. The basic advantages of social media include [...]
Soretta Y. Davies // November 14, 2008 at 10:14 am |
I think the Advantages and Disadvantages in Life is critical because Some people planned evil against Someone and pretend like nothing has happen and tried to go to an extra means to let the person to be hurt, Laughing with the Person and is Hurting them.
Social Media in Higher Education the (in)Complete Story « Compassion in Politics: Christian Social Entrepreneurship, Social Innovation, & Base of the Pyramid/BOP Solutions // May 1, 2009 at 11:00 am |
[...] Of course any university course curriculum on Higher Education 2.0 has to take into account the advantages and disadvantages of social media (for more on this go to Carr or [...]
compassioninpolitics // July 18, 2009 at 2:45 pm |
One point I really didn’t consider when I wrote this was the rise in Enterprise 2.0, software as a service, and cloud computing. These drive increases in collaboration, connectivity, communication, and productivity.
They also have the power to help informative storage, distribution, and management. And some suggest cloud computing may even help monetization of data over the longer term.