Person 1: “What do you do?”
Person 2: “Conversation,”
Person 2: “What do you do?”
Person 1: “Conversation, too.”
Person 2: “Cool.”
Person 1: “Cool.”
Replace “conversation” with the word, “social media,” and that’s how many of the discussions at SXSW went this year.
I am always entertained by conversations between social media folks when, upon learning that the person they are also speaking with also is in social media, become awkwardly silent.
I learned a while back not to assume that people in social media, necessarily, are social.
I do have high hopes, though, for those whose living it is to encourage and contribute to conversation, that those same principles will translate offline.
A few months ago, I went to a technology event in Europe. In a moment of geek glory, I noticed a beautiful example of anti-social social media behavior.
At a table of 10 geeks, no one talked. Then, suddenly, at the same time, we all started to laugh.
Why? Because someone in the chat room made a joke.
Hey social media people, so…what do you do?
