The rise of Social Media - Towards a faster-paced world

While social media are increasingly becoming a strong actor in today's business world, it still remains far from understood, and its mechanisms, meaning what takes off or what won't, what is in or what is out is still a mystery.
One of the most significant manifestations of this is the doubtfulness of newer generation towards media. As Bonnie K. nicely said in class, it used to be "If it's on type, then it must be true". We all know it is no longer the case, googling some word to know its correct spelling might be hazardous, and a lot of content available on the web is -let's face it- plain nonsense. Having grown in that media jungle, newer generations are more skeptical, showing a couple of guys in turbans waiving guns on TV doesn't prove anymore that there is an uprising in middle-east, and more and more people end up checking what they read in newspapers, or even -capital sin- verifying what they see on TV News.

But I would like to propose another point of view on this generational clash. That is - the pace of life. As people live in a growingly fast-paced world, where waiting becomes a real nuisance, and having things resolved quickly becomes a luxury, new generations become increasingly demanding in terms of interactivity, and speed of response. See texting as opposed to calling people. As you can text many people at the same time, and not get locked in the social norm that governs any face-to-face or phone dialog - I mean having to wait for the other person to answer -, texting appears to be a more-efficient, less time-consuming way to have everyday casual chit-chat. And now teenagers scold their mums when they call them "You could have texted me, I have no time for discussing right now."

As such, a new approach to the use of social media might be to make immediately available things people usually wait for, creating therefore user value by saving time to the end user, and matching the needs of a more impatient population.

For further illustration of this idea, I recommend RSA Animate videos. This group takes excellent conferences of TED.com, and illustrates them, while keeping the audio, with whiteboard-like drawings. The concepts are hence more easy to catch-up with, and the video I post below concerns especially the topic of a faster-paced life, and how it impacts education.

Enjoy!