Before and After the Social Media Era: Centralized vs. Decentralized Sources of Knowledge
We no longer have to call or see each other — just follow
Everything changed in 2007. I remember exactly where I was as I joined Facebook (wincing if you call me a “social media expert”).
Facebook alerted me my son has been my “Facebook friend” for 13 years. The iPhone “alerts” me to all such milestones, trivia, and occasional journalism.
Suddenly, my life flashed before my eyes, remembering life BSM (Before Social Media), life before personalized media that encourages us to split off into our little tribes and our tiny islands of isolation:
New World Order: Friending what we like, blocking the rest
Facebook brought “high school rules and standards” to social media. Before Social Media, we yelled, “grow up: Just get along.” Now we’re pickier.
If Mom cooked food we didn’t like, we had to eat it. Not anymore.
High school rules went global: Facebook, developed by young college undergrads in a dorm room, declared:
“No need to get along! Friend people you ‘like,’ unfriend people you’re tired of, and block the ones irritating you.”
