25 Years Hence, Long Hand, Social Media and Me
25 years ago this week I started writing my agricultural column, “Under the Agridome”. It is interesting to look back on all these years, not necessarily to think about the issues, but to think about the technology of writing. 25 years ago this week I sat down with pen and paper scratched out 700 words and drove it down to editor John Gardiner in Wallaceburg.
Contrast that with today, when I watched a live video feed of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture convention in the comfort of my home office. I have not been to the OFA convention in at least 20 years. I’ve always had good intentions of going someday but that seemingly never happens. So today when one of my Twitter friends told me there was a live link on the Internet to the all-day convention I clicked away. The rest of the day I was quite taken with all the speakers at the convention as well as all the live tweets coming from people who were listening in the same conference hall.
Interestingly enough one of the presentations that was given at the convention was about social media. I find social media kind of fascinating because I have found that twitter is a wonderful resource for me. I don’t do Facebook but most people do. We also use YouTube quite regularly and there are a whole host of other social media sites throughout the world. Simply put, in 2011 when it comes to information transfer, it is a world away from the 25 years ago when I scratched something down on paper and physically transported it to an editor. And, I must say, thank goodness for that.
I find the whole dichotomy between that time 25 years ago and this time today when I was a virtual delegate at a convention I once went to fascinating. For instance my good friend and mentor John Gardiner often talks about the good old days in the late 60s and early 70s when things were different. I’m a bit younger than John so I don’t quite look at it the same way that John does. However, when I listen to the young people in the social media seminar today, I was taken by the youthful enthusiasm. In my mind they were just as enthused about this new social media conductivity between worlds as many of John’s friends were back in the day surrounding the summer of love.
I find that I’m a bit unqualified even discussing this. Needless to say, I do include social media in my professional presentations across Canada. The one caveat I always give when making a presentation, which partly includes social media, is it’s all about what young people do. Younger people use social media as a way to communicate and to learn and to get things done. Imagining a time where somebody without any resources would sit on a vinyl couch and scratch out a column totally from his own thoughts and driving that column physically to another location is out of the Stone Age. However, that was me 25 years ago this week.
Some might argue that this new world is all about choice and democracy. For instance 25 years ago, you had to find a friendly editor and publisher to take your work. Today, you still need to find one if you want to get paid but there are other avenues completely up to you. Many of us who started 25 years ago have embraced this new world. However, there are parts of it I find a bit troubling.
There still is a digital divide between rich and poor in our society. With the high cost of wireless in Canada this limits innovation with social media. There also was a report on CNN today how social media makes us anti-social. That’s a bit of an oxymoron but when you are in front of the computer or a Smartphone, some people might think you can’t see the forest for the trees because you got your head stuck on a monitor. In other words sometimes, social media might be thought of as all-encompassing when essentially is just one communications tool. We should all go for a nice walk or a long bike ride for real fun.
Watch this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFZ0z5Fm-Ng.
25 years ago that would have been impossible for me to do, in fact bizarre even to think about. There are few of us left who know what it is like to pen a column in longhand on paper. 25 years ago I started out. Here we are now in a whole new world. 25 years into the future will certainly stretch our imagination again.