Socialized Media: The Four One One

Benefits of the profusion of social media wrought by our addiction stretch far beyond the romantic connectivity wrought by online dating.  You can ask the Internet any question, and get an(y) answer, and you know what they say: knowledge is power!  Before Google (if anyone can remember that far back), one man held all that power.  Jeeves, Ask.com's heir, was the Go-to Guy for all your answers and know, after years underground, in cyber silence, he's making a comeback.  Jeeves is getting a Facebook page, so I'm told, and is becoming really popular about Britons again.  And why not?  A guy obligated to answer any question you ask is bound to boast some mobbing and swarming.

So, why isn't Mr. Answers capturing the attention of us stateside folk?  Yahoo! Answers was big when Yahoo! was gallivanting all over the cyber scene, but, as it turns out, without getting too much into the cultural differences between the Motherland and her prosperous Spawn, the process of searching and finding was...a bit complicated.  The Yahoo search engine site was beefed up with graphics, explanations (albeit simple ones), text boxes, and flashy Las Vegas colors...which seemed to repell the average American user rather than attract her or him.  No, we big country folk can't help it - we like it simple.  Nice, blank and simple.

Which is why Google is the number one search engine in the world.  (Yahoo still is number 2).  Everything seems to be powered by that immaculate-except-for-the-fateful-text-bar-and-two-options-beneath-the-fancied-up-logo web page these days, even the sun (although I think they're working on a top-secret project to reverse the arrow and have the sun power Google...and other stuff, too, but don't tell anyone).  According to a CNBC news special on Google (which, ironically begins with - snicker - an add for the "number one source of entertainment and news in the world": Yahoo), people tell the Internet more than they tell even their spouses.  The video reveals - sort of- the inner workings of Google, and their research-based developments to the google-plex of social media.  Google's research team and found what human beings really need and creates new products and services that play off that.  People thus rely on the internet (nearly synonymous with Google) for what they really need: you know, medical information, recipes, and relationships.

Social media is people sharing information with people.  You know, passing along the next best tip for how to get your baby to sleep quickly, or shooting the latest need-to-know tidbits about the latest Hollywood havoc.  There is more information available to more people in the world than every in history (and that becomes truer every nanosecond), and it's all because of the human connection.  Of course, that is itself dependent on the strength and quality of your Internet connection now more than ever before in history, too.

The only problem I can see with the sheer volume of information and knowledge (other than the two are not always synonymous) available to just about anyone is, well...you can't always trust what you read on the Internet.  And, since it's a lot easier to lie behind a screen, than in person, the social-media dependent kind of communication can, sometimes, lead to little incidents that, well, can mislead a whole bunch of people...but, at least we can see our social media networks are strong and healthy!

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