Wow. If there is one thing I can take away from these end of year lists of trends etc. is that social media is truly a mile wide and about a ¼ inch deep. In other words, what gets the most attention in places like Twitter is very shallow. All of the talk of the social media revolution and passing information along that will change the world blah, blah, blah and this is what Facebook tells us are the biggest trends in status updates in 2010.
Again I say Wow. For all the issues facing the world from global warming, financial crisis, war and just about anything else that actually impacts a person’s life in a real way the number one trending mention in status updates is the newest acronym for the virtually lazy, HMU (hit me up)?
I think I have said enough about this over the past few days but let’s get something straight. Social media looks more and more like a vast wasteland of inane chatter than ever before. As Internet marketers it appears as if the task at hand is just finding a way to either market your products and services alongside this ‘interaction’ or figure out an effective way to wade through the muck to find the people that are interested in your message. Neither is going to be easy. If this isn’t evidence for cultivating a strong community around your cause / product / whatever rather than looking to the masses, I don’t know what is.
When 20% of the top 10 ‘trends’ in status updates are about events that truly impacted people and the other 80% are about mere distractions, it’s time to call the social media world what it actually might really be: a way for people to express just how empty their lives really are. Harsh? Maybe but if it’s anything other please explain so in the comments section.
Well, here’s to airplanes (Airplanes? Really?) and to trying to predict the future in 2011 (rather than dealing with reality in 2010, I suppose).
Here’s my predictions for what will trend next year. Happy 2011!
1. Boats
2. Dirt
3. Movies
4. Bieber puberty
5. An event to create hollow online activism
6. Plastic
7. iAnything
8. Gas (of the personal kind)
9. An event that makes everyone look cool because they mentioned it
10. AUKM – Are U Kidding Me?
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