You say you want a revolution...

 A friend recently posted a great video on Facebook (thanks, G!)about what the author refers to as the "Social Media Revolution".  Mostly, the clip was entertaining, and perhaps a little bit shocking with some of the statistics.  However, I was struck when they rhymed off stats regarding how long it has taken various media to reach 50 Million users (Facebook was light years faster than everything from radio to the Internet itself).

I was not surprised at how fast Facebook reached its users, but more so that the Internet and Social Media had actually been split into separate categories. That got me thinking, "Is social media really THAT big that it necessitates separate consideration?"  The answer I came up with was both yes and no.

On one hand, the statistics given are difficult to argue with (if Facebook were a country, it would be the world's 4th biggest).  Social Media has taken the world by storm and is unprecedented in its penetration.  However, it is also necessarily dependent on the Internet as its host, and could not survive without it.

I don't mean to argue over the minutia of whether the videographer should have mentioned the Internet  and Social Media in the same breath or not.  The point is to really think about the magnitude of this new, dynamic way of connecting people and decide whether this is a total game-changer or just a pit stop on the way to something different.  After all, its greatest appeal comes from the way it empowers the individual.  This is being threatened by an increasing infringement of commerce in the social spaces, and may hit a critical point at which users leave en-masse to bigger and better things.  If managed well, social media will continue to serve individuals and commercial presence will add to its success.

One thing is for sure: the dynamic nature of digital media means that its future is not only unwritten, but unpredictable even among its most astute followers.  Anyone with a computer can be the next Zuckerberg or Anderson and come out of nowhere to change the way the world connects.  Even though Social Media is indisputably a revolution of media, its legacy remains uncertain: is it the new radio/television/Internet, a modern 8-track, or somewhere in between?