Spiked: Social Zwang - Being there is not everything

I think the social web is great. Twitter, Facebook, blogs, YouTube, Flickr, Xing, sensational. It has long been common sense that anyone who doesn't use the potential of the social web - for self-promotion, advertising or clever PR, for connecting, sharing and linking - will soon be out of the picture. The only thing is that your social media presence has to be authentic. And that's the crux of the matter. Because how can you be authentic, inspiring and surprising if you don't feel like tweeting, blogging or podcasting? If you don't have the time to check what others are writing about you at the weekend - to monitor, as the new Germans call it? I think the social web is great. But it could be that there are people for whom all the data and opinion sharing on the web means nothing. Or is too much. They'd rather ask colleagues in the pub or the neighbor at the garden fence for hotel tips, the most comfortable shoes or the coolest cars. With a sparkle in their eyes and enthusiasm in their voice. Would that be a bad thing?

But no, no way, everyone has to join in! Otherwise it'll go downhill. At least that's the opinion of a 16-year-old girl who was on stage at the Goldbach Mediarena 2011 in Kaufleuten. And a good cross-section of the entire Swiss media, PR and advertising industry listens spellbound, amazed and thinks: "Mol, the boy is right." The digital native proudly tells the unsuspecting old people that he hasn't held a newspaper in his hand for years. He uses tools to fish the information he is really interested in from the Internet. If that's not enough, he asks friends who share his interests. Presumably by text message while they are sitting next to him. Once again, the digital immigrant community is amazed, giggling and sliding their fingers around on their iPhones in embarrassment: "Do we old people have to be like this in the future?" For heaven's sake! We talk about social and global, about a network that connects and holds together - but see young people playing around with their smartphones instead of talking to the flesh-and-blood colleague next door, managers running over young mothers because they're staring at their iPads. For me, this is a sign of isolation and professional idiocy. Of course you can make friends anywhere in the world today. But should we forget about those who live next door? Of course you have to select and bundle the incoming information. But does it make sense to purify the mass of data to such an extent that it becomes one-sided? How are you supposed to come up with new ideas if you only consume what you are already interested in? Perhaps someone could explain to the little guy on the Kaufleuten stage that the special thing about the good old paper newspaper is that you can leaf through everything quickly, even if you're only interested in sport. That it's fun to come across data you weren't expecting when you're researching on the Internet. When the brain picks up knowledge along the way on the fast track to the desired information, it enriches us and allows us to think outside the box. Perhaps we should take a breath in all this hyperbole: instead of filling and observing all media channels 24 hours a day, we could put the smartphone down for once and look our conversation partner in the face again. That way, we'd get at least as much out of the world as if we were constantly linking, sharing and connecting. Maybe even more. Maybe not quite as quickly. Would that be a bad thing? The Bernet study "Web 2.0" showed that 60 percent of Swiss companies have no resources at all for social media. Disastrous? Logical. They are only now thinking about the fact that they could get involved in the big movement. Because everyone says you have to be involved. Do you have to? Not necessarily. Only those who are really passionate about social media or who employ one can be a good social webber. Because they like people, because they understand what makes the social web tick, because they behave authentically. And because they can assess where the company could nestle in this huge network. Profitable. So you're not crazy if you're not "web "ed yet. It's better to think twice than to find yourself in a foul-smelling shitstorm despite having invested a lot of time.