Personally, I've been straying in this direction for a while and I think it's evident from an under-current in a number of my posts over recent months. I don't, therefore, think it's just a summer doldrums things but we'll see what happens later in the year. - Colin Walker

Blame Scoble. - Sarah Perez

Ditto Sarah. (Did I just ditto Sarah?) - Charlie Anzman

Not at all!! If anything, as more people get exposed, immersed (addicted?), more people are connecting, technologies / services are advancing to be the newest/greatet (ie: micro-blogging -> micro-blogging w/ options - location based + multi-media, etc.), mobile + desktop services/software/sites seem to be intertwining, and technology companies in general seem to be shifting to a more consumer driven one. If anything, I'm more excited about the internet and technology than ever!! :) - Mona Nomura

You're looking at wayyy too small a picture in that post. The people you are talking about are all tech bloggers. What you aren't looking at is the larger picture.A higher interest in technology and, new technologies are leaking into the mainstream. Maybe for the techies things are not as nice and shiny as they used to be but..for the rest of us social media is a "new frontier" that people are just beginning to explore. - Candace Holly

I don't know about this social media thing but EA has a lot more fun with its shiny objects. - Robert Scoble

Depends on who you ask. For those in the echo chamber (or just with their ear against it), I'd say so. For the rest of the world, I think you'll find that social media was never so shiny to begin: they have FaceBook or MySpace and that's it. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Stupid: (wow, that sounds rude =|) Did you read Shey's recent blog post on the echo chamber? It was a really good piece. Read it here: http://www.sheysmith.com/2008... (Steven, sorry for hijacking your thread...) - Mona Nomura

What's going to happen when all of this becomes mainstream? - Rahaf Harfoush from feedalizr

@Candace - as with most of my posts this is purely to raise a conversation on something that I was thinking about - Steven Hodson

The only people that are getting jaded are the one that follow the same routine (online and offline) every day. Mix it up a little gang. It's healthy, and there's a whole new world here .... and Mona - Charlie Anzman

I find it funny that all of you are throwing critques around ON social media. - Robert Scoble

+1 to Charlie and @Scoble - Don't point out the irony! ...It's not as funny that way :( - Candace Holly

@Mona: Definitely not trying to be rude, I'm simply drawing off my experience with friends and family offline. They aren't tech people, but they are all web users and only a handful of them have anything to do with social media (and it's FB and MS). Even the tech people I deal with don't feel drawn to it. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Stupid Blogger: I heard EXACTLY the same thing said about personal computers in 1977. - Robert Scoble

well maybe a shakedown coming up via increased competition to get rid of the non value adding ones.... - Marcel Ekkel

@Mona: reread & realized you weren't calling *me* rude. Doh! You can call me SB, or find my name which is hidden around here somewhere... To check my perspective, I looked over my FB profile: all but two friends are from my math & science magnet school. Other than one guy who actually works at Google (and you can't count him, he's in the chamber!), no one else seems all that involved in social media outside of FB. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

@Scoble: Wouldn't you say, though, that the speed of adoption and adaptation have dramatically increased over the past 30+ years? What previously took 5-10 years to become 'mainstream' is now taking a year or three. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

SB: I hear you, but IMHO, Facebook and Myspace are slowly breaking in the masses. New Facebook, upgraded Myspace, incorporation of new services, apps, etc., :) Oh, and the iPhone. The iPhone revolutionalized the American mobile market, regardless of how buggy / over-hyped it is. - Mona Nomura

Stupid: absolutely. The world is going faster now. - Robert Scoble

twitter just hit USA Today. I think it's just getting started for the 99% who aren't in the chamber. - Morgan

@Scoble - if people have an issue with social media then, surely, social media itself is the perfect place to air those concerns as they are immediately placed in front of those who can do something about it. You wouldn't complain to an Apple customer service rep if you had a problem with McDonalds. I see no irony here. - Colin Walker from fftogo

Colin: you missed my point. If social media is so bad I'm sure there are alternatives where you could communicate your point of view more effectively, no? I guess I'm just getting tired of seeing all the social media talk coming through my reader and through FriendFeed today. Oh well, I know this storm will probably pass within a few hours. Even haters can't focus for very long lately. :-) - Robert Scoble

ah excuse me Robert but no-one in this thread expressed any kind of "hater" speech .. and neither was my post anywhere close to being in that vein. So maybe clarify your assumption - Steven Hodson

Steven: it wasn't this comment cluster or even your post I was talking about. There were a bunch of anti-social media sentiment that came through my reader tonight and I'm reacting to the group of things. Hater is probably too strong a word. Critic, or critical thought is probably more correct. "Uninteresting" is the word you used in your blog post. I guess I should have just said they were bored. I'm bored with this topic, so onward. - Robert Scoble

i try to think of any online stuff w.r.t the real life (humans remain human even online). How has it been w/trad. media? We got newspapers then magazines then periodicalls then specialized magazines then specialized newspapers then what? perhaps one or more item? the rest is variations, improvements, derivations and AGGREGATIONS of those, right? Following those? yes, people get into new but there is saturation. So is it online. There is increase in following but the curve is saturating.. - Hayk H.

To echo Steven, I am certainly not a hater and have been a huge advocate of social media and its possibilities. With regards to other avenues, they may exist but would not be as effective in communicating directly with those involved. And besides, what's a blog for if not to have your say? - Colin Walker from fftogo

I'm all for mouthing off on a blog. :-) I'm just bored. I should have hid this cluster and went on with my life. :-) - Robert Scoble

Social media age is about 3-4 years.Probably,it's the time of first crisis. - Igor Poltavskiy

@Igor, I would rather call it a life cycle! - Hayk H.

As a "newbie" to the social media scene, it hasn't lost it's luster for me. I started on FB just 4 months ago and I am just learning how to really get connected. I've gotten 20 friends and family to join FB and I have discussions with most of them daily. I think social media is still growing and will eventually be a part of everyone's online experience. - Jonathan.Rivera

Steven, maybe you are seeing something similar that happens to people when they drink too much Coca Cola. It gets your sugar levels way up, puts you into hyper drive, but after a while the rush wears off and you slow down. You then either drink some more which leads to adjustments in your body that make you less hyper the more you drink. Or you do what is probably most healthy. Drink a coke when you are thirsty or really enjoy it, and stick to something healthier for the rest of the time. - Alexander van Elsas

I am beginning to believe that a lot of the pro-bloggers/breaking news type of bloggers have been drinking too much coke ;-) There are really exciting things going on in this world. But you don't have to race to the next "new" fad to see that happening. You can find it all over the place ;-) - Alexander van Elsas