A vacation, and some observations.....

Broadstuff has been quiet the last few weeks, owing to the annual vacation and the inevitable massive workload before and after going (I need a vacation to recover from my vacation....)

Anyway, that meant I was nowhere near social media for a good 4 weeks, and I think the experieince is interesting. I have gone "Cold Turkey" in a way, as coming back to Twitter, Techmeme, TechCrunch etc I was struck by how much PR cr*p is on them all now!

I am sure it was not always thus, so I had a look at Techmeme by about 3 years back , and - this is just an impression, rather than a scientific study - my impressions are:

- The postings were more thoughtful, less salesy and the topics were more about "how" than "X is a Y killer" etc

- They were mainly "amateur" tech bloggers, not "pro" tech blog journalists, writing was for interest, not for money

- Today there is much more forelock tugging to the Great Powers - the joy of blogs in the mid Noughties was they weren't in the pockets of the Big Wallets, now they by and large are.

In other words something has been lost - maybe it was ever thus, but the content now is - in my view - very lightweight. Now, this is clearly good for advertising - my experience with this blog is that lightweight, topical content drives far more traffic than long, considered articles in the short term. The question is whether it drives influence for that blog or writer. For the promoter it clearly does - the more blogs parroting a story the better, there is a quality in quantity, but whether it is good for the blogger is another matter. (Over the last 3 yaers, my "biggest selling" articles have been the longer, more thoughtful ones and those have oened the door to the conferences, clients and so on)

With Twitter, the thing that really hit me coming back after 4 weeks was that it was a complete tower of babble, and the sooner I can get self-determined filters that I control on this sort of medium, the better.

For "Social Media" I think it has hit its Point of Maximum Hype and is on the slide - the grasping at "Social Commerce" is the last desperate act to monetise the f*cker. (A point made on one of the posts three years back was that Social Commerce was like your friend coming up to you at a pub or dinner party dressed in Coca Cola gear (or any other brand you care to name) and trying to recommend you buy it, knowing he gets paid for it, and wondering why the guy didn't realise he was being a complete w*nker).

Anyway, they knew it wouldn't work then, but clearly today the need to monetise these companies has unleashed a blizzard of tame pundits trying to persuade us it will actually work, and that you will take said friend unto your bosom, welcome him heartily, and (most importantly) buy the stuff.

A nation no longer of shopkeepers, but of virtual Ponzi salespeople. These are what the word "friend" is used for these days.....