Buzz. Facebook. Twitter. And a bucket load of socials you’ll never use because you’ll never hear of them. Every one carries the same banner: social engagement. A way for us to relate. A noise that has a different tone to that of the edicts fed to the masses by traditional media.
And so we’re a week or so into the launch of Buzz. It’s different. A different noise. Right now, it’s mostly being made by people talking about using it. Which is always strange; kinda like those people with £10,000 camcorders and nothing to film.
No doubt the masses will join the conversation. They may even switch from Twitter, and Google will finally claim a big social media scalp (it hasn’t bagged a whole load of those remember).
But even if it does, there’s a nagging question remaining: is the rabid urge to exchange actually changing a damn thing? Oh I know: I’m too high of waistband to understand. And at the end of the day, is a 4000-post thread in Buzz actually bringing the world to its knees?
No, it isn’t. But neither is it making a tangible difference to the thing outside of that window (you know… The World). In fact, the last I looked it was a more cynical, vacuous, viscious place than it was 10 years ago. Now if only someone, somewhere could prove me wrong…
