What is the “power” of platform media?
For all our talk of the power of conversation and “social computing” the true power of the platform is much simpler. What it boils down to is the concept of a megaphone.
What is the megaphone, well, think of it as your voice projected out across your network.
Shout It Out
On the web, the number (and “quality”) of friends you keep, the bigger your blog and the more conferences you attend increases the size of your megaphone.
The breadth and frequency of your use of the media determines its volume.
And your voice, your opinions and your biases determine what comes spilling out.
In short, platform media transforms you into a platform — which is a bad thing, until you start mixing messages. I think the issue can be summed up like this,
“Internet fame turns you into a medium. Therefore you should carry information and inform.” (Ruud Hein)
The problem is that information is agnostic, and your megaphone doesn’t care what information it spews onto the web. The result? Squabbles that would better be kept unsaid end up spilling over into sources that on busier days bring us our news.
Feedback
The echoes you hear bouncing off the walls of the blogosphere spring from the same disease. We speak as if we don’t understand we’re being heard, and when others start to parrot the messages we project, we balk as if we don’t understand why it’s hard to find original thought.
If there is a lesson to be had here it is that social media and the megaphone that it grants comes with a responsibility. That responsibility is to not only to understand, but manage the information we allow out.
The biggest surprise that Internet celebrities face is when they realize that there are dozens if not hundreds of real, live human beings that take their thoughts at face value. I realize that you aren’t forcing people to listen, but if you choose fame of any kind, it comes with a certain set of responsibilities.
The hardest part of fame is learning how to be famous.
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