By: Barry Garbarino
It seems that lately more and more people are re-connecting
on sites like Facebook, Myspace and BeBo. Gone are the days that we wait until our 10th, 20th
or even 50th class reunion to reconnect with friends from the
past. Unlike the awkward experience of
trying to catch-up in three hours or less (at the dreaded reunion, which is
sometimes held in the gymnasium of one’s alma matter), individuals are able to re-establish relationships and build on them
through social media.
I know this from daily personal experience. There are numerous people that I have
reconnected with over the past year that I have had little to no contact with
for many years. It seems like it only
takes two or three days to recount the memories, bring each other up to speed
and resume a “virtual” friendship all over again.
In many ways, social media is a very American
institution. I know that it might sounds
crazy, but back in the late 1700’s there were many people blazing the trail of
social media. In a way, Thomas Paine
produced some of our country’s earliest social media. As the author of Common Sense, Paine helped start the long tradition of media
produced by the people for the people.
He would later write The Crisis,
which helped inspire the Continental Army and assisted to swell its ranks! It was such a popular pamphlet, that as a
percentage of the population, it is estimated that it was read by or read to
more people than today watch the Super Bowl.
Ok, so while most people today use social media as away to
connect with friends, families and new people, many companies and organizations
are also utilizing it to reach out to their audiences in new ways.
(Insert shameless plug
for ANA’s social media.)
Well, if you haven’t joined the ANA as a fan on Facebook or
visited us on Slideshare, or Linked-In with one or more of us, or even
Twitter’d, you should check us out!
We’ll see you in the cyberspace!