Social Media and Gutenberg - Hyperbole?

Social Strategy & Design by @KarlLong

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Apr 25, 2008

Social Media and Gutenberg - Hyperbole?

I just got quoted in the Marin Independent Journal from a panel I was on this week. The quote they chose to use was:

“The move toward social media is as big a change as Gutenberg and the printing press,” said Karl Long, a product manager at Nokia. “Social media is the ability for anyone to publish anything without any cost.”

and of course to potentially reach anyone online.

So what do you think? Hyperbole?

Interestingly Steven Fry and the BBC recently put online a 60 minute show called The Machine That Made Us that is all about the Gutenberg press and how it changed the world.

see part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, and part six here.

So in 50 or 100 years will there be a documentary about how the internet changed us? I wonder what it will be called? The Machine That Distracted Us? The Machine That Got Us Laid? The Machine That Got Us Jobs? The Machine That Connected Us? The Machine That Democratized Everything? The Machine That Made Culture Global?

Thanks as always Kottke

5 Comments, Comment or Ping

  1. Gavin Heaton

    Thanks, I had not seen the Stephen Fry piece! I have always been interested in the link between the printing press and revolution(s) it precipitated. Perhaps there is more to the Google strategy than we mere mortals comprehend ;)

    May 19th, 2008

  2. iMarkus

    Sky + this and watched it a couple of days ago. Not only an interesting story but incredibly well presented. Stephen Fry is an incredible talent. It would be great to see his finely tuned intellect turned on social media to see what he would make of it in 60 minutes.

    May 23rd, 2008

  3. Johnnie Moore

    Hyperbole? I guess only time will tell. Personally, I think we’ve all barely scratched the surface of what this change will mean to our lives. I wonder if we’re on the verge of a great awakening… but don’t know if we’ll wake up fast enough to respond to the extraordinary problems (peak oil, climate change) we face.

    Jun 6th, 2008

  4. Karl

    No kidding Johnnie, with food riots in 30+ countries and a perfect storm of arable land getting used for bio fuels and speculators pushing the prices up even further I think we have a huge mess on our hands. I actually think gas prices going up is ok in the fact that it is economics that will drive alternatives there, food on the other hand is not optional and has no alternative, we have to eat :-)

    Jun 6th, 2008

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