The First Signs of Deeper Changes in Society from Social Media? Perhaps.

Perhaps all that media "hype" about the dangers for kids on the Web over the past 10 years, then the efforts local law enforcement and parents have made to educate our children on the dangers of the Web is paying off. I was quite encouraged to read an article in TechCrunch today about how kids don't use Twitter primarily because they don't feel it's safe. This is good.

As the article points out, research indicates teens and "tweens" feel safer in closed Social Networks (i.e. Facebook, Bebo and MySpace) because they can better manage "who" they are connecting with. This is showing a change in online social behaviour. Perhaps this is one of the first larger signs of how society is learning to adapt Social Media tools.

Our kids are developing a "Web sense" about how they use these tools. What will be interesting is to see how these behaviours become more "normative" and in what ways Social Media tools and services become used. Do you think this is a positive sign? What changes in the "Net Generation" kids do you think we'll see in terms of social behaviour with technologies such as Social Networks.

I'm not a sociologist, but this seems a Leading Indicator of a deeper societal change as we adapt a technology to our culture. Your thoughts?

The Subculture of Twitter & MLM Scams

When I read this opening comment on a cheesy sales wesbite "TWITTER is the most amazing marketing tool that has ever existed in the history of the internet!" I then realized a "subculture" had been evolving on Twitter for some time. Yes, it's the Amway type those folks who've fallen under the maudlin spell of "get-rich-quick", convinced that this program (out of the 200 others they've tried) is the only one while failing to realize there is always a Madoff cackling madly at the top of the pyramid their blithely paying into.

I suppose it had to happen. I noticed this weekend that 27% of my new followers on Twitter are in the MLM game. Desperate? More desperate than Wile E. Coyote it would seem. I noted 14 of these Twitter types instantly directing me back to some form of website that promoted how to get rich off of Twitter...I wonder if they realize that even the founders of Twitter haven't figured out a business model yet. I guess the irony is lost on the mindless. After all, they paid $19.99 (cause they bought at a "special low rate" and figure perhaps a few hundred others would.

So, we've got Ponzi and Pyramid Schemes, link-baiting and affiliate scams - with most of these sites being run by just a few at the top. The few who actually are getting rich. Kind of like the Rapture Market in the evangelical Christian Economy racking up huge funds espousing impending doom and the Republican News Network (a.k.a. Fox News) gorging on fear and loathing...

Some of my favourite Follow Thanks I've received recently:

"OMG! Thanks to follow! OMG! So true, here's how I got rich from Twitter & you can too"

"Yer so kewl! I love you! Tnx for the follow, get rich here (link)"...(ed. you love me? who the heck are you?)

"Wow, now your following me, here's how you can make $$ on Twitter..."

"Your great! Learn how to get more followers and get rich via Twitter..."

And so on...so apparently I should be filthy rich by now being on Twitter nearly two years!

Twitter has it's subculture and it's called MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) and they're breaking the first rule of "build trust first, then promote" by instantly promoting. A random sampling of 50 MLM Twitter users showed that 90% of the time, they were all following other MLM types...kind of like the dog that chases it's own tail. Hopefully they'll wear themselves out sooner than later and fall asleep.

The Problems of Web 2.0 & Free Software Applications

Twitter has locked me out. I can't "tweet" or "re-tweet", I just can't do anything. At all. I'm not sure if someone has hijacked my account, if something odd happened. I installed the latest update of TweetDeck, signed in using my regular account and now I've been locked out. Done. Two hours later and I still can't get in.

Herein lies the main problem with Web 2.0 Apps; you do require patience and some knowledge of getting applications to work for you. At some point, you'll run into an issue with software updates a service shutdown or some other related technical issue. As I did with TweetDeck.

Unfortunately, TweetDeck has not found a simple way to enable updates without requiring a total re-sign-in. This issue resulted in me wiping TweetDeck from my hard drive and installing competitive (and better) solution, Seesmic. But I'm comfortable with doing this. Many, in fact, the majority of people, aren't.

So they stop participating. Frustration sets in. And here we find another issue. Economics. TweetDeck is free and the general public expects it to be so. TweetDeck is looking for a way to monetize it's solution I am sure, but it hasn't yet. So this challenges the expectations between consumer and the products they use when they are free - just how much service should we expect and what happens when we don't get any service?

As a consumer, we expect service, but when the product is free, the "social contract" changes. We haven't paid for anything and in a capitalist society, that means the provider really isn't obligated to do anything.

I don't have an answer. What do you think?

The Dangerous Side of Blogging & HIV

Mainstream media loves a scary story about Social Media. Well, I have one of my own. I was a little nervous thinking about my approach to writing this blog entry. Overall, I am perhaps overly optimistic about the Social Web and the Web as a whole. Last year, I experienced the dark side of the Web.

In 2005 I began a blog called "Slimconomy" about the business and economics of HIV/AIDS. Why? Well, I had the distinct privilege of working for 3 years at the very front line of the battle against HIV/AIDS. I was marketing, globally, a 90-second rapid test for HIV. Arguably the best in the world. After 3 years of trotting around the world to some of the more remote and darker parts (Western and Central Africa and Latin America) on the road 80% of the time, I was exhausted. I decided a change was in order and left a great company, MedMira, which has a great product. I'm HIV negative just to state that. Anyone who calls it a "gay disease" is ignorant and daft beyond consideration.

Without going into the scary details of the business of HIV here, I'll tell the quick story. A year into my blogging, I wrote an article about the people who believe AIDS is a government/mega-corporation conspiracy despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Despite that I held a dying mother in my arms in a remote African village as her two sons of 6 and 7 looked on. Despite the horrors I'd seen in real-life. They are called the AIDS-Denialists. There are many of them.

My first blog entry attracted some heated blasts at me for writing against them. I wrote again. More hatred spewed at me. So I wrote again. From there it started to escalate. Within two weeks I received nastier and nastier emails.

Then it got worse. I got a phone call at home. It was a death threat. I thought, OK, a phone call is one thing. I ignored it and wrote more, delving into the bizarre beliefs of these denialists. Then I got a letter in the mail. Another death threat.

Yes, it was police time. Without going into too much detail, the threat was considered by authorities to be real, and from a known source of violent action - the detail was frightening. With a family I hold so dearly to my heart, it was time to think hard about what I was doing. I was writing a book about the business of HIV, with a contract from a publisher waiting to be signed.

With a very heavy heart, I put the blog into "hibernation", especially after Google contacted me about a Denial of Service Attack against my blog and some shifty moves by a far-right Christian Fundamentalist group.

The blog is hibernating more than a year later. I've had no more threats. Perhaps this blog post will produce some. Hopefully not. But it was a walk on the darkside of Social Media. One I hope never to take again. Perhaps I'll have the courage to bring Slimconomy back, but for now, not so.

Why "Slimconomy"? Well, in Africa, AIDS is called "Slim" because of the wasting part of the disease. Hence the economics of HIV and "Slim" = Slimconomy.

That's my experience of the downside of Social Media.