Comments on: Social Media Has Not Reached Mainstream

By: From the Pipeline - 4.30.08 — Shooting at Bubbles

From the Pipeline - 4.30.08 — Shooting at Bubbles — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 07:35:55 +0000

[...] Social Media Has Not Reached Mainstream :: SheGeeks – Corvida spent the day in a self imposed Twitter exile but did get this very good post out during the peaks and valleys of the Twitter shakes. [...]

By: Online Cricket Games

Online Cricket Games — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 22:25:04 +0000

I don't really agree with you on that. Face Book, MySpace, Linked In have already been used by Large Corporations when they advertise for jobs or looking at recruiting people. However, I must agree that corporations are not catching onto FriendFeed or Twitter.

By: Racing School

Racing School — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 18:25:04 +0000

By: Racing Schools

Racing Schools — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 16:25:04 +0000

By: Keenan

Keenan — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:15:48 +0000

I think the web is moving too fast. Social media is great for those who have already embedded themselves, and their identify on the web. Social media provides tremendous value for such people. For most people, however, they are just getting through the email, Yahoo groups and forums (web 1.0) world.

Social Media will need to evolve in a way that provides value in peoples everyday life. It will need to be easily integrated into their lives, making the things they do easier.

It will be interested in watching.

By: Will Aggregation Ever Go Mainstream? « Tecno Week

Will Aggregation Ever Go Mainstream? « Tecno Week — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:58:12 +0000

[...] Frederic over at The Last Podcast as well as Corvida at SheGeeks both broached the topics of the chasm between the early adopters and the mainstream recently. Corvida concluded: [...]

By: notes, thoughts, ideas and responses » A new players perspective on why social media is not mainstream

Fri, 02 May 2008 12:18:12 +0000

[...] Social Media Has Not Reached Mainstream [...]

By: Will Aggregation Ever Go Mainstream?

Will Aggregation Ever Go Mainstream? — Fri, 02 May 2008 10:11:11 +0000

[...] Frederic over at The Last Podcast as well as Corvida at SheGeeks both broached the topics of the chasm between the early adopters and the mainstream recently. Corvida concluded: [...]

By: Justin Kistner

Justin Kistner — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:39:06 +0000

Great post, Corvida. I was all ready to say, "Wait, my mom and dad are bloggers and use RSS feeds daily!" Then I read:

I can guarantee that over 50% don’t have family members or real life friends that use these services, and for those that do, it’s because you probably badgered them into it.

Having gone through the badgering process with them, it's clear to me that the barrier to entry for the 50-60 crowd is less technological and more about perceived value.

Typing was once a skill one would put on his/her resume. Now, it is a basic requirement to participate online. The same is true for social media and it's corresponding tech, such as RSS feeds. Before my mother knew how awesome it is to socialize with people online, she was resistant to the tech. After she started connecting with people, she quickly learned basic HTML/CSS and stays connected with her friends on Blog Catalog and MyBlogLog. Her tech education was driven by the desire for more and more meaningful connections with other people online. Now she doesn't think about the tech much at all. Mostly we talk about socializing issues, like etiquette.

I do think intuitive UIs are important for mass adoption. Lower tech barriers might encourage people to explore on more of a whim, which fuels their further interest. I think the biggest reason most of the mainstream isn't here yet has more to do with the belief there is something worthwhile for them to push them through learning the tech. I see the tech skills they need to develop as no more demanding than the skill of typing, which was once done only by trained typing professionals.

By: shafqat

shafqat — Thu, 01 May 2008 10:33:13 +0000

Great post. I sometimes feel like we've skipped a whole generation of web services. We had all our web 1.0 tools that the mainstream use, understand and are comfortable with (e.g. Ebay). We've since moved onto this second generation of web services that the techies and early adopters swoon over, but just dont make sense to the mainstream (e.g. Twitter, Friendfeed). There is NO demand for those services outside of the tiny minority of early adopers, at least not yet.

I think there is a market opening for web sevices that can bridge that gap (Web 1.5?). The mainstream don't even use or understand RSS, but us techies have moved on to Twitter and FriendFeed. Why not take a step back and build tools to bring RSS and syndication to the masses first? Otherwise the chasm will just keep growing, and we'll be more and more out of touch with what our friends and family really need.