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Is Social Media Making Us Dumb?
Tags: expert expertise knowledge social media Social Networks webinars
Latest Comments
8 July 31, 2010 by Rich Blank
I couldn't agree more, social media is just a
way of...
The explosion of social media has been nothing but a phenomenon. Communities, twitter, August 5, 2010 by karrie
facebook, linkedin and other networks allow us all to instantly share articles, thought leadership, books, tweets, It is really sad that Wave is on its way out. I
PPTs, news, events, and more. And the more we engage in social media, the more I'm starting to wonder if have...
social media is actually making us smarter and more enlightened OR if we are simply becoming dumber by the August 5, 2010 by Pervara Kapadia
day. Yes Danny we all talk about engagement and
quality of...
While I see tremendous value in the online links and information and articles that are shared into and throughout August 5, 2010 by Pervara Kapadia
my social networks, social media seems to be influencing the world with "NBC Today Show"-like headlines and PatriciaI spend way too much looking at the
content containing lightweight, high level fodder and sound-bytes from whatever happens to be your knowledge stats so you...
domain of choice. While blogs provide fantastic ways to share insights into communities of interest, more and August 5, 2010 by Suzanne Vara
more the posts I see are generally less than 400 words, conversational in tone, and read like "Top 5 Ways..." or ElaineThose 3 stages have you in a great
"Top Reasons Why" to promote sharability. place as you were...
August 5, 2010 by Suzanne Vara
I also see social media trending towards the 60 minute webinars and 10 minute videos and tweets of less than
KentThe 30 day challenge is a great tool to go
140 characters to capture people's attention, promote your services or product like an online infommercials to back to at...
capture sales leads and create brand awareness. I see individuals simply updating their LinkedIn profile with so- August 5, 2010 by Suzanne Vara
called books from their Amazon reading list just for the sake of sounding intelligent and creating a perception
that they actually stay current on the latest trends and buzzwords like Tipping Points or Flat Worlds or Our Blogger Board
Synergistic Change. Of course we are all soooo busy that there is no way we have read or even will attempt to
read these books. I also see the latest tweets from the Harvard Business Review being shared around and Jonathan Salem Baskin is an author
who writes a regular column on
emailed throughout our social networks as if we are some enlightened thinker of strategy and management with
Advertising Age & posts on his award-
some inspirational message of change. And then there's Ted.com...an addicting site of speeches & winning blog. Read more»
lectures from REAL thought leaders and experts throughout the world...and who doesn't "heart" Ted? Of course John H. Bell heads up the 360°
social media now allows Ted.com junkies to share online lectures and speeches like a drug dealer handing out Digital Influence team & teaches
graduate studies in Digital Influence at
free samples on the street.
Johns Hopkins University. Read
more»
Let's face the fact that because of social media, everything is starting to look and sound like Cosmopolitan
John A. Byrne is chairman & editor-
Magazine and USA Today headlines. Now I will admit I too am guilty of proliferating this trend to simply keep up in-chief of C-Change Media Inc. & the
with the "Jones" as the experiment of social media evolves and becomes "mainstream". The reality is... author or co-author of eight books.
because of social media, today anyone, at any level, from anywhere has access to the same sound bytes of Read more»
information as you. Maybe your niche is technology or six sigma or project management or talent management Vanessa DiMauro is the CEO of
Leader Networks & has been creating
or even information management!!! ... Social media allows anyone to act like an expert, pretend to be an expert,
successful online communities for
and promote themselves as an expert. Because of social media....we just might be proliferating the Dilbert over 15 years. Read more»
principles we all know and love so well. We are possibly becoming dumber and allowing the mediocre to gain a Maggie Fox is the founder and CEO
competitive advantage or at least sound like they actually know what they're doing or are an expert in their of Social Media Group & was named
respective domain. one of the Top 100 Marketers in
Marketing Magazine. Read more»
What say you? Are you jaded in your thinking like this? OR are you enlightened and encouraged by all that Rachel Happe is a Co-Founder and
Principal at The Community
social media has to offer?
Roundtable & a blogger at The Social
Organization. Read more»
http://sharepointpmp.com/2010/07/31/is-social-media-making-us-dumb/
J.D. Lasica is a consultant who is
considered one of the leading
Follow me on Twitter... authorities on social media & user-
created media. Read more»
About the Author Brian Solis is author of Engage, & is
recognized as one of the most
Optimizating Collaborative Processes, Projects, Knowledge, and MS SharePoint
prominent thought leaders & authors
in new media. Read more»
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http://socialmediatoday.com/richblank/154394/social-media-making-us-dumb 8/6/2010

2. Is Social Media Making Us Dumb? | Social Media Today Page 2 of 4
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RichBlank said: Adding Value with Online
Community
here's a perfect example that illustrates my points above... 5 P's now 25? and ending
with a big happy face...6000 views and over 300 retweets so far.. all good light fodder for The Ethics of Blogging
sharing...but nothing of real substance in that post (no offense to the post author)
When PR and Interactive Marketing
http://socialmediatoday.com/officedivvy/154631/25-ps-social-and-new-media-marketing Collide
How to Choose the Right Social
edit reply 0 points Mon, 2010-08-02 21:47 — Rich Blank
Media Vendor
Categories
Rich said:
» Blogging
Thanks for the comments. Breadth vs. depth is the real issue. There's so much » Collaboration
information shared in online social media world it is nearly impossible to dive deep....instead we » communities
go broad and learn a little about a lot of different things. Breadth is great for starting or having » Enterprise 2.0
a conversation....however, I prefer depth when it comes to getting work done with a certain » facebook
level of quality and expertise. » Finance & Accounting
» Google
reply 0 points Mon, 2010-08-02 21:20 — Rich » Human Resources
» Knowledge Management
» LinkedIn
» Management
Courtney said: » Marketing
» Media 2.0
Ok, I understand the idea that we maybe getting dumber by the minute because social
» mobile
media has changed the way we absorb content. We are all skimmers, headline readers and
our grammar has hit rock bottom (myself included). » Personal Branding
» Podcasting
However, I can't help but remember the mantra stuffed into my head at Journalism school, » Podcasts
KISS or "Keep It Simple Stupid." We were encourage to have stories under 500 words that » Policy & Guidelines
gave all the information needed. You had to understand that a reader needed to want to read » Politics
your story from the title and the 1st paragraph. I don't think we are getting stupider because of » Public Relations
the word count or phrasing. I think that we are connecting with the audience in their language. » Sales
We are talking with them like people and not professors. » Search
» SMT_School
The world is learning that if you can say it in fewer words than more people will listen.
» Social Bookmarking
» Social Customer
Please let me know if this all makes sense or if I seem as non-sensical as the next 'guru'.
» Social Media Today Exclusive
» Social Networks
reply 0 points Mon, 2010-08-02 12:14 — Courtney
» Social Software
» Surveys & Research
» Tools
Pauline Alvarado said: » twitter
» Video
Great article! Another way to think about Social Media dumbing us down is the fact that » Video Blogging
most information, content, and interaction requires absolutely a short attention span making it » Webcasts
harder on a person to really research, take time, absorb, and analyze information. The fact that » Wordpress
there are a ton of information out there makes it harder to spend time on a certain subject » YouTube
because in the search of being an "expert" you have to read EVERYTHING. Don't get me
http://socialmediatoday.com/richblank/154394/social-media-making-us-dumb 8/6/2010

3. Is Social Media Making Us Dumb? | Social Media Today Page 3 of 4
wrong, Social Media is great but there are it's drawbacks. Lately, I've been taking time away Events
from the computer and taking time to read books.
No events listed
reply 0 points Mon, 2010-08-02 09:19 — Pauline Alvarado Add your own!
Featured Bloggers
Paul Sutton said: YOU Josh Bernoff
Adam Metz Marc Meyer
Hi Rich
Andrew Bruce Smith Mark Masterson
Angela Connor Matt Rhodes
This is a really interesting discussion point, and one that I also wrote about a couple of months Angelo Fernando Michael Brito
ago following the excellent BBC mini-series The Virtual Revolution. In my post I asserted Ari Herzog Mike Manuel
that as we become more used to tools like RSS and 140 character status updates, we will lose Augie Ray Nathan Gilliatt
the power of concentration, swapping in-depth reading, knowledge and conversation for skim- Beth Harte Neville Hobson
Beth Kanter Niall Cook
reading, surface-level understanding and brief interactions. The outcome will be a society that
Brian Solis Nick O'Neill
knows little about lots, but lots about little. Connie Bensen Nicole DeFalco
D J Francis Paul Dunay
Whether or not this is true remains to be seen, but I think there's certainly an element of truth in Dan Greenfield Paul Gillin
what you say about "allowing the mediocre to gain a competitive advantage". I guess what it Dan Schawbel Peter Himler
comes down to is that I (and you?) hope that the cream will also rise to the top. From personal Dave Fleet Rachel Happe
David Armano Rand Han
experience, I've been reading social media/communications blogs avidly for about 9 months
Debra Murphy Robert Lesser
and after all that time I can now spot the good ones, from the people who genuinely know their Dennis McDonald Rohit Bhargava
stuff a mile off. Given time, I hope this becomes the case across the social web. Dina Mehta Ross Mayfield
Dirk Shaw Sally Falkow
Paul Dirkthecow Scott Monty
Francois Gossieaux Shel Holtz
Freddie Laker Shiv Singh
reply 0 points Mon, 2010-08-02 05:07 — Paul Sutton
Gary Goldhammer Stewart Mader
Headshift Tac Anderson
Jacob Morgan Themos Kalafatis
Jason Baer Tiphereth Gloria
Eli said: Jason Falls Tom Pick
Joel Postman Valeria Maltoni
Well... I agree and disagree. I believe some of us will always be getting dumber by the John Bell Vanessa DiMauro
minute, while others of us will always be getting smarter by the minute. At least it seems that John A. Byrne Venessa Miemis
John Cass Webmetricsguru
way. To me, it seems that has always been the case pretty much since the beginning of time.
John Jantsch
In other words, it will all depend, as always, on which information and which tools each
individual chooses and how that individual uses and/or ignores the tools and information at Our Other Communities
his/her fingertips.
Maybe.
Or maybe I just got a little dumber... ;*)
reply 0 points Sun, 2010-08-01 16:35 — Eli
Goodone said:
We may very well be "dumbing down" ourselves, and yet the point that struck me in the
post was about how we are manufacturing so called "experts" on the fly.
I recently notcied one Twitter account with over 100,000 others this person was following. Can
that even be possible, effectively?
It's seems like the 1000 page report handed into the teacher that says absolutely nothing.
Guess we'll figure it all out sooner or later.
<!--Session data-->
reply 0 points Sun, 2010-08-01 14:07 — Goodone
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Antoine Didienne said:
I could not agree more!! I posted an entry of similar content on my blog after reading a
couple of articles in the WSJ online.
Shirky believes it's all good, and everything is just dandy, that the long trail eventually produces
quality content, and, get this, that we are capable (as a crowd) to reproduce Einstein's work
because of the mere size of the participants.
http://socialmediatoday.com/richblank/154394/social-media-making-us-dumb 8/6/2010

4. Is Social Media Making Us Dumb? | Social Media Today Page 4 of 4
Have you heard of Jaron Lanier and Nicholas Carr? If not, they are a good representation of
the diametrically opposite representation of Shirky's looney ideas. We are getting dumber by
the minute. Because of the content being spread through the web as well as the fact that we
don't have to remember anything given that all knowledge is now available at the tip of our
fingers.
reply 0 points Sat, 2010-07-31 16:16 — Antoine Didienne
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http://socialmediatoday.com/richblank/154394/social-media-making-us-dumb 8/6/2010