Last Tuesday evening I attended one of the Ferg's Hot Topics discussions and learned a ton. Not so much from the great Socialnomics video presented, but more from the audience. What I learned was not a string of startling facts about the pervasive use of social media, (Dr. R taught me that), but I did see first hand the that the students attending were very naive in their perception of the world wide web.
Only eighteen students attended which was surprising to the organizers and myself. With social media the #1 pastime for most all currently enrolled college students, we all thought that attendance would set records.There are over half a billion users of facebook now, and on a campus of over 30,000 one would think that at least a third or more are actively using this one form of social media so how many should we have expected?
Actually, this kind of apathy towards thinking about one's use of facebook and its affect on our lives is totally typical. Even more shocking is the belief expressed by attendees that "facebook and twitter have not really figured out a way to make money for their services just yet." Yeah right! Google just handed the founders of facebook $1.65 billion because it wanted to provide a free service for all the world to "connect." What are these kids thinking? Do they not know how companies operate, how they must operate to stay in business? One student studying marketing began to speak and I was proud to think that at least one person understood the back door of social media. Then she ended her comments with something like "those ads, even though they are customized to the user, are not really that valuable." I could barely keep my mouth closed until it was my turn to speak. I can't even remember what all I said I was so frustrated with this gullible group of kids! But if I could go back and write down what I hoped I said it would go something like this:
"We all come to college to learn, not only in the classroom but also from our fellow students. You come to meet new people, hear different music, eat odd foods, travel to stimulating places, attend cultural events and see how others choose to live their lives. With this customized generation sporting their ipod headphones and clicking away at their cell phones as they walk across campus I wonder how you can experience anything you have not predetermined? You listen to the music you have purchased previously, downloaded onto your ipod and keep piped directly into your ears almost every free moment, the universal sign of "NOT INTERESTED." You walk looking down at your phone not noticing the interesting person standing next to you, not hearing the birds or seeing the artistic clouds that loom over your head because you are texting something really important (to your already approved friend) like "What's up?" You miss entirely the serendipity of life, the random encounters and exhilarating process of discovery. Open your eyes and see the real world around you and more importantly see the virtual world for what it is, Big Brother's watching your every move!"
Wonder what the virtual world really is? Well, because this post can't be much longer and the fact that I will be addressing the virtual revolution in my next post, I will keep you hanging til then.
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