We’re All a Part Of It Now: What I Learned About Social Media With the Family Over the Holidays

I felt it even before the stats came out, noting that Facebook was the most visited site on the web Christmas day 2009.  It was incredibly interesting, after years working in this industry, to hear the words “blog”, “Twitter”, and “Facebook” used so casually and effortlessly by the extended clan. Or to finally be able to explain to everyone what it is we do at bigMETHOD.

It all really culminated in what was once my childhood bedroom, walking in to this scene:

Those are my uncles, crowded around the family computer and pulling up Facebook profiles of folks they haven’t seen in years just to see what they’re up to now. (note my little orange handprints on the wall).

Of course all of the fervor around the social web was entertaining for me.  As always, I started thinking past that though, to what it means in the grand scheme of things.

The greatest takeaway to me: we’re all a part of it now.

Used to be that it was only for the kids.  Then it was only for the kids and hip older folks. Then just for the kids, the hip older folks, and the unhip older folks that the hip older folks pressured into jumping on board. Now I can confidently say ubiquity has arrived. Not everyone has a Facebook profile, but everyone’s seen one by now. Most people are not on Twitter, but they understand how it works now.  Blogs are not everyone’s first stop news source, but they completely grasp the role they play in the journalistic food cycle.

For all the social media nuts, it’s going to be an interesting year.