autom8

If you’ve never seen this exquisite film (directed by the inimitable Denys Arcand) then you must.

Title of this post was partially inspired by the title of that film, Le déclin de l’empire américain, and the overriding black comedy flavour I personally see in some (okay, many) of today’s blog posts.

Just yesterday, a Forrester study notes that social networking users are creating less content. Now if you look past the stats and imagine that among these key “creators” are bloggers (like  me) think of it this way: none of us are actually creating new content. End of story. Right?

Why do I think this?

To illustrate—and I mean to purely illustrate through combined semantic and literary analyis of a  given post which struck me (I mean, literally hit me over the head)—why I think the above may be the case, I will extract certain phrases from this blogger’s post and provide my own take on the excerpts.

My interpretations are and always have been purely visceral. They are in no way meant to offend, mud-sling or willfully antagonize any blogger or the one whose content I’ve chosen to use as an example.

The quality of diction is..well, should not, be strained

Some of the more impressionable statements that gave me pause for thought and concern are noted below. I am concerned that the overall tone of these statements tend to border on generalization.

That in an attempt to generate some line of argument, certain states and conditions, which have long pre-existed prior to blogging and social media, are being “exposed” as detrimental to the intricate characteristics of social behaviours the majority of us actually find commonplace and expected.

Again, my own musings. Not directed at any one in particular.

“The world of social media still has a credibility problem in business.”

Hmm..so all those folks I’ve been talking to online and offline about their orgs wanting to be part of social media—whether diving head on or gingerly dipping their toes in—must either be brainwashed into having this inexplicable need OR they actually see the potential for the medium to be credible..and valuable.

“We talk too much about the value of our time rather than putting it to good use.”

For this one, I’ll refer to a comment to bring light to my reaction. I do agree with Angelique btw. Need I elaborate?

“We cannibalize our own.”

Is that phrase meant to say “We are mean to each other?” ‘Cannibalizing one’s own’ is actually redundant. See point #3 of “Influence, Idolization and Idiots“. But seriously, is this really that outrageously unacceptable a phenomenon that it begs further examination and insight?

“We talk about conversation, but we focus a great deal on the tools. And, on ourselves.”

I hesitate to say how overwhelming ironic that statement is, but I suppose by virtue of me stating my reticence, actually makes it pretty self-evident.

The long and short of this post is this: bloggers should be mindful to stick to data and interpreting such data, and to leave the in-depth social analysis to sociologists, psychologists, philosophers, researchers and the like.

Over-analyzing social behaviour for the  sake of crafting something to make it appear as if it’s a whole new thing or ball game is a sure step to demise..of all things borne of educated observation, supported by empirical analysis and expressed with literary clout.

image sourced from ozap.com