Social Media Hummingbirds and Online Conversations
Everyone likes to see hummingbirds. They immediately capture our attention but they only stay for mere seconds. By the time someone says, “Look! A hummingbird”, it is gone.
Did you know that hummingbirds will typically consume more than their own weight in food daily? In order to pull this off they have to visit hundreds of flowers each day. They are at a constant risk of starving. No wonder they don’t stop.
Earlier today, Brian Solis wrote about “The Online Value of Conversations” where he notes an increase in the volume and frequency of new content being generated often at the expense of the high value conversation surrounding a topic which he calls, “the most enlightening part of any topic” where you find, “brilliance, perspective, and new opinions that allow a topic to genuinely flourish”. He makes a lot of sense. Like a hummingbird, we take a quick bite (a media snack) and then move on to the next topic rather than engage. Is it a volume problem or perhaps, as Steve Rubel points out, the Lazysphere has produced an increase in regurgitated content not worth stopping for?
The part of Brian’s post that brought the Hummingbird image to mind is:
“Again, content is increasing in production to the point where it’s almost impossible to navigate through the static. Instead of honing on and strengthening relevant signals, we jump from place to place and from conversation to conversation, contributing most of our time to sharing less important content than the very ideas that can help empower the value of each online community where we engage.
We move too quickly.”
In thinking about this trend, I wondered if it might be contributing to new habits that will overflow to all of our conversations & relationships (offline and online)? In other words, could our media snacking habit be shifting our relationships and conversations to increasingly becoming wider, but more superficial instead of focused and deep? Or do you find rather that it opens doors to great relationships?
Personally I think it is all quite manageable as long as you keep a proper balance, as my “social media addict” colleague & friend has recently written about. However, I am inspired by Brian’s post to try to stop and engage a little more often. Are you a social media hummingbird?
January 17th, 2008 - Posted in Conversation, Social Media | |
on January 28th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
I’m finding that social media is like panning for gold - sifting through rocks, dirt and other stuff to find the precious metals. “Snacking” is the new panning.
on January 30th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Loved the reference to panning from Mark - great stuff and very applicable - definitely a hummingbird here. I also find my snacking leads me to other great content…
Depth is still needed but now we have the massive breadth to go with it (plus, it’s all still so new we’re all learning…).
PS Thanks for the link-love.
on February 19th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Perhaps we should be “tasting” rather than “snacking” - think of it as a sampling to see what appeals before sitting down to a nutritious meal, rather than filling up on the low-calorie mass-produced offerings that dominate the table? Of course, the analogy hardly holds if we’re ever-moving, ever-seeking hummingbirds - which humans may well be, with our ever-shortening attention spans. I do share your concern about the eventual impact on our relationships.
on February 21st, 2008 at 9:26 am
A hummingbird photo recently photographed by my dad looks beautiful.