Has Web 2.0 Made You Happier? [part II]

 

The messages and threads in social media and networks have been pretty intense in the last week or so. I thought it appropriate to bring back a really good conversation we had last year about happiness.

________

Have all the social bookmarking services brought you closer to great content, or has it just added to your workload?

Are your online relationships as productive or satisfying as your real ones? And if the answer here is "yes," do you have many real relationships?

Has Web 2.0 empowered your customer service people -- or just thinned out traditional marketing and personnel budgets?

Are email, Twitter, and IM services helping you to communicate better -- or just flooding you with noise?

There's a lot great about new web tools. But unless we master them -- and not the other way around -- Web 2.0 will be remembered as just another fad.

What works for you in Web 2.0 -- and what doesn't?

_______

When we had this conversation, there were amazing responses. A few pearls of wisdom from the previous discussion:

Luis Sandoval - Web 2.0 has always been promising, don't get me wrong. The expansion of ideas is great, but there seems to be more emphasis now on be the "It" thing that users are left behind to deal with the confusing aspects of adapting.

Ricardo Bueno - There are only so many hours in the day and your blog is a resource that's available 24/7. When you think about it, it's a unique resource that way. I like it for that reason but I also don't let it eliminate the personal aspect of my marketing (I still like to meet face-to-face).

Je' Maverick - I really love this post, and thank you for raising the questions. Does it add noise? Yes. Is this noise enriching? No. It has arrested my focus. Web 2.0 as we know it has only delivered a lot of extra task management quandaries to me. I would prefer to shift my focus back to delivering content. I can only say that it is not marketing - it is advertising.

Jens KH - does it make you happier? yes, it does.

because it tears down - or at least fundamentally challenges - some old parameters of identity construction, which in simple words are build on "the others" versus "you (and your buddies)".

the web as we can experience it today shows us that we are the others and that the others are us.

orientation within the new web - and amongst all of its players - puts more of an emphasis on similarities to ourselves (which make us come back to a site) rather than on dissimilarities (which do not attract us and which for us in consequence make a certain web offer disappear forever in the infinite space of the internet).

so - and this is terribly important - we consciously build our identity on similarities=love=acceptance rather than on "you are different from me because you look different, you speak different, you are not me and THEREFORE i am me" (this is basic sociology on identity building).

the new web globally challenges this. not only does it challenge these modalities of identity building - it qualifies them as belonging to a time past.

the new equation goes: i am because you are.
- i am me because you are like me.
this is a tremendous difference.
and, yes, it makes us - and everybody - fundamentally more happy.

Chris Baskind - Web 2.0 would be awesome if it actually worked. ;-)

Derrick Kwa - I think Web 2.0 doesn't necessarily bring about deeper relationships. But what it allows is a broader range of relationships. Without Web 2.0, for example, I would never have been able to connect with you. The value comes in that it breaks down practically all barriers for connecting with others.

Jon Burg - Happiness is a state of mind. Web 2.0 cannot make anyone happier. People can and should be happy because of who they are, despite any hardships and frustrations they endure in their lives.[...] Personally, I enjoy web 2.0. It has been a pleasure getting to know the greater community, to share ideas, to learn, to experience the wonder that is mass personal and social communication.

________

What about you? Has Web 2.0 made you happier?

[image of moments before sunrise by slack12]

Comments

[Rod Gillies]

It's a mixed bag for me...

My personal life has been enriched through easy and more frequent contacts with old friends. I've found people with shared interests through Flickr and various forums - some of whom have "crossed the boundary" to being what I would call "real" friends. And my various blogging efforts have proved to be enjoyable creative outlets.

At work however, seeing our marketeers viewing social media at best as new channels for the same old communication is incredibly frustrating. What social media needs is a couple of "killer campaigns" which finally wake up the old-school bunch to what might be possible when we stop shouting at consumers and start talking with them instead.

[Keith Bossey]

I don't think that social media or web 2.0 has significantly raised the bar across the board. It seems to have a multiplier effect. For those people and companies that were focused on networking and communicating before web 2.0, they are now that much better, they are "bionic". For many, the added connectivity is noise, and in some cases, a burden. Also, since we are still in the honeymoon phase with many of these technologies, there are countless examples of misuse, as people try it out and try to force old methods on new tools. Has web 2.0 made me happy? Yes, I'm an information hound and networker and I think that its improved my career and personally. Has it caused more work? Yes and No. I'm doing more of tasks that I never had to think about before, but as I learn to integrate these new tools into my reportoire (spelling?), I'm replacing less efficient tasks. Great post. Always good to stop for a while and think.

[Rick Simmons]

Happiness as it pertains to web 2.0 is an interesting concept and good question. I think the following makes the most sense to me, "Luis Sandoval said - Web 2.0 has always been promising, don't get me wrong. The expansion of ideas is great, but there seems to be more emphasis now on be the "It" thing that users are left behind to deal with the confusing aspects of adapting."

Does it make me happier - probably not since it now means another thing to do. The quesiton is do we allow it to become so much a part of us that it can actually affect our happiness - and in that context it has no affect on my happiness.
For my clients just more to try and put into perspective as another part of a whole. Being the next fad is exhausting when we try to keep folks talking about expectations and this being just another tool - perhaps with some sizzle to make it smell good but no promise of meat necessarily.

[Jé Maverick]

Thanks for quoting me in this blog, Valeria. I think I need to add a little to it, in order to clarify my position. Much of what I wrote holds true if one approaches the social web as some sort of extra task set, but that is only one very small slice of the Web 2.0 pie. It's obvious that I wrote this on a fairly busy day. ;)

The great shame for me is that I left the distinct reason for my embracing of the social web out of the equation: the distinct possibilities for connection with other like minded or like hearted individuals, and the sharing of ideas, content, and perspectives with these people. For me it also represents the ability to put my poetry before more eyes, but even as I have taken a hiatus from publishing on the web for a few months, I realise that it is not the praise for work that I miss, but the connections with other people.

Web 2.0 is other people - this is what keeps me returning to the same haunts on the social web. While I don't care for tasks, I quite like other people, and the possibility of meeting without barriers, rubbing some ideas together and helping to create a blazing humanity. Yes.

[Denis]

not sure if it is making me happier or not... I am happy when I meet great people, when I found out great events that other people are attending... I am happy when I finalised something that I found out on the social web.
But the social web, on its own... well... it's just a tool. A bit sad too I'd add.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Rod - while I think best practices help deconstruct what was done well and what can be done better and believe in the value of repeatability, we're moving more into a world where marketers will need to really know their stuff - industry, customers, content - to succeed. We're moving and evolving too fast and what is good today may be passe' tomorrow. That's why context is so important and this work needs to be so hands-on. Good thinking here and thank you for kicking off the conversation.

@Keith - I truly enjoyed your post about sales calls. It seems too simple, doesn't it? Love how you talk about the multiplier effect. I've used the term "on steroids", but I like your "bionic" more. Anything that is hard forces us to stretch or move outside our comfort zone where we operate from habit into a zone of learning... and growth. In fact, we probably learn more from the times when we get that uncomfortable feeling in our gut, than when all is well. We reach flow when we rise above the preoccupation with failing and join the experience of doing real time. Your French is spelled correctly. Awesome thinking.

@Rick - what do they say about taking things in small doses? It's true. And does what you're doing make sense to your business, growth... life? There is meat alright, it's a matter of knowing how to execute and measure. You know that!

@Je' - it's so good hearing from you. I was thinking last night as I was composing the post that it had been a while. I identify my own reasons with yours. There are so many great people I met through social media that I might not have otherwise ever met. I love this image "rubbing some ideas together and helping to create a blazing humanity". Thank you.

@Denis - of course it's just a set of tools. The promise though, the reason it was 'invented' was to help further knowledge sharing and that it does in spades.

[Rod Gillies]

^ It's not so much about copying best practise as having even one big brand example where a company takes the opportunity and proves it can make these tools work well.

It feels to me like there's an awful lot of talk about how great social media could be, and not many examples of how great it's proved itself to be. Don't get me wrong - I agree that it could be great - but I just don't think that any of the old-school marketeers will buy what us believers are selling until a big brand or two blazes the trail. That's the bit that makes me sad - I feel like the guy in the corner suggesting TV whilst all my colleagues are still saying it's all about radio.

[Zoe]

On the broad implications of Web 2.0, I think Jens KH made some very important points. But your question seems personal too, so I'll speak of my personal experience.

I started blogging on a personal blog for friends and family when I moved to Thailand two years ago. Then one year ago, I started a blog meant for the public to read. Committing to writing a blog has been the catalyst for so many developments in my life over the past year. I take my writing in general much more seriously; I have connected with scores of people with complementary aspirations and interests; I've come to learn the tools that have potential to amplify the work of change agents. I feel like I am still unfolding the new possibilities opening around us.

But more than anything, I've learned that web 2.0 is just a toolkit. It presents incredible potential, but ultimately, it depends on how we use it. And I think we are very much in flux, still negotiating the spaces and capacities we're encountering. Sometimes Twitter is tiring, and feels like pointless noise, but sometimes it leads me to new collaborations or even just the ability to chat with someone on a specific topic.

When I approach these tools with intention and honesty, they fuel fulfilling outcomes. But when I approach them out of boredom or restlessness, I remain unfulfilled. I think therein lies the bottom line of web 2.0... it is what we put into it.

[Jon Buscall]

I'm not sure if I am happier; however, I'm certainly busier. As a freelancer Web 2.0 strategies have opened up different kinds of relationships for me and enabled me to take onboard larger projects, collaborating with others in the cloud.

Web 2.0 has also changed the way I talk to people. Rather than pushing my ideas into a channel of "look at me" I start conversations.

Perhaps the other change has been the blurring of boundaries between work contacts and social contacts. There's so much conversation now through Web 2.0 services (social media) that I think it's blurring the distinction between communication for work and communication for relationship building.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Rod - I hear you on that one. I think that many companies are making really good strides on integrating the less sexy parts of new media into their plans. And alas because the whole lot is often after new shiny objects and would not think of broadcasting their success with a Delicious strategy, for example.

@Zoe - I so liked your comment that I reread it a couple of times. I especially enjoyed your insight "I've come to learn the tools that have potential to amplify the work of change agents" because we're indeed talking about the ability to amplify and extend your existing capabilities as well as stretch the possibilities with learning. Yes, our own intention and attitude has everything to do with our experience - just like in life.

@Jon - the blurring of work contacts and social contacts is a very interesting development. You probably notice that there is flexibility in that some social contacts can become work contacts and vice versa.

[Bruce Christensen]

The best of Web 2.0 is how it has extended my connections with my family.

I don't ever want to give up the tools that are shrinking the tyranny of distance in my family.
With children scattered from one coast to the other, these Web 2.0 services are a critical part of my personal well-being. I have become dependent upon them and I am even finding ways to enhance them.

These interactions with Web 2.0 are indeed making me happier...
I enjoy being part of the conversation that seems to grow in every direction possible.