Is Everything That is Good Bad for You?

There have been articles in all the major papers around the traps over the past 24 hours, like this one from the Courier Mail.  It seem some boffin has published a paper in the Institute of Biology journal stating that social media like Facebook and Twitter are terribly dangerous for us all, and that as a result, we're going to get cancer from it.

There was another one doing the traps a couple of days ago how a glass of red wine each day gives you a 160% higher chance of getting oral cancer.  What?

What is it with boffins who love to come out of the woodwork and do a "study" on anything that we enjoy (red wine, chocolate, sex, social media, having a snooze on a Sunday arvo) and then claim it's all terribly bad for us and we're going to get CANCER.  You have to capitalise it you know, cos it's all very serious and if you don't stop doing what you are doing right now, you're going to get CANCER.

Stop it.  Seriously, whatever it is you're doing RIGHT THIS INSTANT, stop it right now.  Or you'll get cancer.

Now I'm getting silly aren't I?  But I'm just a bit over there being a huge kerfuffle in the "regular" media over what's going to give you cancer just because some boffin says so.  The thing about the red wine giving you oral cancer?  I know someone who died at 26 of oral cancer who had never had an alcoholic drink, a cigarette, sex or been on a social media site.  She was just a lovely young woman who lived a very strict Christian life.  How do you like them apples, boffins?

Won't somebody please think of the children!!!!

Back to the social media thing, boffin Dr Sigman claims that sites like Facebook are keeping us all at home sitting in the dark talking to each other on our computers, and that's bad.

Now I don't know about you, but since I started getting into social media, my "real life" social life has EXPLODED.  I barely have a week where I'm not running around like a crazy woman trying to get to all of the social events, meet ups and gigs I've got planned.  And where have I planned these?  Facebook... Twitter... 

Here's an example.  One Sunday morning, I was slothing about in bed.  I rolled over, picked up my mobile phone off my bedside table and sent a tweet to Twitter via text message.  That tweet was "I feel like brunch.  Toast is boring."

Half an hour later, my mobile phone rang.  "Hi," said a friend "I saw your tweet so I thought I could pick you up and we can go out for brunch.  I'm bored too."  So off we went that morning to a rather lovely brunch and lots of chat and laughs together.

And that's only one example.  I could tell  you many, many more, from big organised events like Twestival, parties and dinners and such with friends, to one on one catch ups.  Tonight I am going to a party organised almost exclusively on Facebook.  Monday I'm having lunch with a friend, we organised it on Facebook.  Tuesday night I have a dinner I'm attending that I heard about on Twitter, and taking a fellow tweeting friend with me.  And that's just over the next four days, it goes on.

When are the boffins going to get that social media is not about social misfits sitting at home in a room lit only by their monitor, tapping away at one another.  They need to understand that social media is a tool that everyday people use to connect with each other.  And contrary to popular belief, it's not just the young that are doing it.  It's been awhile since I've been a youth.  My friends that use social media range from youths to those who are old enough to be my parent.

And I have made new friends through social media websites.  Whether it be catching up with a like minded Twitter buddy for a coffee, attending a local group meet up, or conversing with someone on Facebook from San Francisco that I intend to catch up with  next time I take a trip over to the US, social media continually brings new social contacts into my life.

One of the things I'm thinking is that we all need to let go of the idea that there is a virtual life and a real life, and that they're two separate entities.  All of it is my real life, the same as talking to someone on the telephone is part of my real life.  Social media are tools for communication.  And people are using them to conduct their lives.  Not to hide behind so that they don't have to live, but to enable them to live more fully.

Here's a little food for thought for you:

Will Somebody PLEASE Trust Me!

Excuse me for a moment, but...

I need a little vent.  Boom tish!

I'm feeling very stifled creatively in my work.  It's not that I don't like my job, I LOVE it.  But I can see very big holes in the way we are engaging with our customers, and it's in the one area that I am not only passionate about, but I believe that I am good at.  In fact, it's in the one area that my whole job title is about... and that's digital media.  Also known as social media or sometimes Web2.0.  Basically it's all the stuff that we do on the internet today, most of which you will find connected to me right here on this blog.  Blogging itself, photograph sharing, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, all that stuff.  Chances are, if you're reading this blog, you're probably well immersed in it all.

I personally believe that while we're REALLY good at teaching customers new things, and REALLY good at expanding our customers horizons, we're REALLY bad at engaging with those that are already skilled and wish to be engaged with as peers.  They don't need to be taught what digital media is, they already know.  They don't need to be taught how to use it, they're already using it.  And we're not in their world, or where we are, we talk to them in corporate speak, or as though we're instructing children.

Every piece of communication we put out to our customers has been marketed to the nth degree.  There is no spontaneity to it, no warmth.  It's got to have a "look and feel".  Now while I think that is perfect for things like brochures and printed media (I know myself I can find something in my notebook or bag very quickly if it has a distinct brand look to it), it doesn't work for the whole online presence any more.  If you are engaging with people via digital media, I believe you should be speaking to your audience as though they're  your peers.

We don't do that anywhere.  We're broadcasting, not communicating.  Broadcasting does have it's place, but it's not the be all and end all like it used to be.  Our culture is far more interactive and communicative than it has been in a very long time.  And being broadcast to loses our attention pretty quickly.

Which comes back to my feeling stifled.  I'm good at the digital media stuff.  I don't mean that like "Well everyone, I'm an expert.", because I know I'm not.  But I'm confident with having a go at it, and I understand how it works.  I'm passionate about digital media because it's what interests me, and it's where I am.  And in a sense, I feel like the customer that is being ignored.

So I have this knowledge and passion... and I feel like I'm not allowed to do anything with it.  I keep presenting what I know after VAST amounts of learning on my own initiative, only to have it dismissed or fed up to the higher levels where it disappears in a miasma of workshops and focus groups, only to be spat out the other side as another piece of corporate "collateral" which totally misses the point.

I feel like I am wasted a lot of the time.  I am earning a really good wage which I feel is being spent on me stuffing envelopes and cleaning up the database, when I could be of a lot more value for money if I was given something I could really chew on and trusted more.  It's not that I believe that the work I am doing is beneath  me, it's just that I feel that as a Band 4 I could be utilised SO much better.

Not so long ago my boss asked me if I wanted him to encourage me more.  I replied "Well that would be nice, but what I really want is for you to discourage me LESS."  But I'm not sure anyone quite gets that concept.

Disclaimer:  Please remember that this is MY blog and the opinions expressed here are MINE and not that of my employer or any other organisation.  If ya don't like what I got to say, don't read it!