This is an interesting question to think about. And, really, I had to think about it. Social media is such an integrated part of our lives that it’s hard to separate the “new” from the “regular”. Upon reflection, I realized that the world (ok, a bit of a stretch) is a lot more transparent and we are having a lot more conversations. We have options and insights that we weren’t privy to in the past.
Consider for example almost any corporation or organization…even the government. In the past we were always “pushed” messages. Topic “X” is what we knew about and it was delivered in a certain way; the way that suited them the best. There is a lot more “pull” and that is a good thing!
We now have transparency, interaction and multiple points of view. Granted, this comes with hardships too. What I mean is; what piece of information to do you hold to be true? What side do you agree with? The good news is that you at least get to choose!
This leads me to my next revelation. We now need people to feed these conversations. Think about all of the people who are employed because of social media. Almost every organization has a content contributor or a writer who help to publish social content.
A lot has changed in such a short amount of time. I can’t wait to see what new applications we encounter!