From Doomsday to Boomsday In A Press Release

And suddenly we've gone from "Depression Era 2.0" to being on the verge of an "Economic Resurgence"...perhaps industrial media saw that all the negative hype and prophesying crushing economic defeat was not helping their advertising dollars? Today's positive housing sales announcement follows on the heels of "cautious optimism" (read: major PR spin) from economists saying maybe the worst is over.

Or was it ever the worst? Yes over 40 U.S. banks closed and several in Europe and other countries. Yes, the stock markets lost significant value and yes unemployment hopped up a bit. Back in February I did some reading between the lines on what media wasn't saying, a little "reality check" if you will.

So here's my hype-o-meter reading today: It's Boomsday Spin Time folks. Doom is out. Boom is in. We're on the upswing, the tide is turning...

...OK, maybe not so hyped so fast. I note the words of "caution" getting thrown in by media and economists...kind of like hedging their bets...yeah, and hedging paid off last time didn't it? I'm just sayin'.

The reality is; housing was way out of control, subprime mortgages were ridiculous to begin with, financial laws were too loose, stockmarkets were way overvalued and manufacturing costs are too high in North America. Then the turn to corn/grain for "green fuel" caused food costs to rise far too high and oil was also unreasonably high and at the mercy of speculators.

A few got really rich, a lot lost a lot of value and everything was out of whack. We had a necessary correction.

All of this was very good for Social Media and the Web economy as a whole as people cocooned and spent more time online, found it enjoyable and will likely stay there. Nice.

So now we spin up for boomsday...

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.