Medium Is The User

We live in the Social Media Galaxy 
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February 8, 2010

Feeling connected everywhere you go

Do you remember those times when you had this one place at home or at the office and these places were the only ones where you could access the thing we call World Wide Web? It seems that we forgot about those limitations and think of the Internet as something we can experience very easily.

It's no longer a question of WHERE to connect with others. It's a WHEN question.

I'm on the train from Katowice to Warsaw. Sitting with five other people. You can see the picture. To clear things out, it's not a fancy bussiness class. I bought a cheap 37 worth PLN (11 USD) ticket for a low-budget connection.

If a person from late 90's had the chance to travel in time and watch us in 2010, one would definitely say it's a strange world. And I totally agree. We live in a whole different world. Better connected one. But I wish we always knew that these railway trips we take are to meet people in person and still it is far more important than sending an email.

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Filed under  //   connectivity   Social Media Galaxy  
Posted from Katowice, Poland

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January 22, 2010

We live in the Social Media Galaxy

Nine years ago Manuell Castells made a reference in his book: 'The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society' to the Marshall McLuhan's 'Gutenberg Galaxy' from 1962. 'Gutenberg Galaxy' was the idea about the world changed by mass media, especially printed press. It was about mass communication that allowed the entire world to be like one global village. Castells went one step further to describe the concept of the world that we live in as 'The Internet Galaxy'. Castells praises internet as a communication medium. It allows, for the first time, the communication of many to many, on a global scale. Indeed the evolution of the Internet has a great impact on our society, economics, politics and culture. On the global scale we are being structured by the Internet and its networks. Not being a part of it is the most damaging form of exclusion in many form of activities. 

The Internet didn't connect us truely like we wanted back in '90s or even early '00s. The networks of cables put around the world to provide us with the World Wide Web experience didn't work the way Castells described. The technology just wasn't enough. We were sending emails to each other, talking via messangers, chatting or reading news online and it was a change, but the big change was yet to come. It had to be more than that to truely make a difference. It had to be a people phenonenom, a social one. Social Media wouldn't be possible if we didn't learn how to use the new tools, get used to internet services and some lack of privacy. It is difficult to find your milky way in a Social Media Galaxy, but we are getting better at it every day in order to connect truely and finally make something useful out of it.

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Filed under  //   global village   Gutenberg Galaxy   Manuell Castells   Marshall McLuhan   medium is the message   Social Media Galaxy  

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